. 


GIFT  OF 


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To  Cecile 


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foreword 


First  Scries  of  70  Sonnets  begun  in 
1899  and  originally  printed  by  William 
Marion  Reedy  in  St.  Louis  Mirror,  1900. 
Aftcrivards  published  in  book  form  in 
1901. 

Second  Scries  of  70  Sonnets  and  Proem 
begun  in  1909,  and  first  printed  by  Samuel 
Travers  Clover  in  Los  Angeles  Saturday 
Night,  1922.  Acknowledgment  is  herewith 
made  to  Mr.  Clover  for  courtesy  of  per 
mission  to  re-print  this  series. 


PAGE 

Life    At    Its    Best  ..................  8 

The   Wooing    ..................................  '  '  9 

In    the    Fields  ....................  ....!.*!!!.!!!!!!!  9 

Jealousy     .........................................  10 

Books     ...........................................  10 

Love    Without    Passion  ____  11 

On  the   Hills  ...................................  )|]  H 

Worship     .........................................  12 

Recollections     ..............................              .  12 

Women     .................................  .........  13 

Ideals    .....................................  .......  13 

In  Idle  Hours  ............................  .........  14 

Selfishness  .................................  .......  14 

Music    .....................................  .......  15 

A  Woman's  World  ...........................  .....  15 

By   Moonlight    ...........................  .  .....  \\\  16 

Companionship     ................................  16 

Apart    ..................................  .......'.'.'.  17 

Apple  Trees   ......................................  17 

Reserve    ...................................  .......  18 

Vanity    ..................................  '...'.'.'.'.'.'.  18 

In  the  Woods    .............  .  .....  19 

Gold    ..................  19 

To  My  Wife   .......................  .....'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.  20 

A  Woman's  Love   .................................  20 

Midsummer  .....................  .  .................  21 

Sisterhood    ...........................  .21 

Water  Lilies  ..................  ....................  22 

Love's    Philosophy    ................................  22 

To  the  Woman   ...................................  23 

To  the  Man   ......................................  23 

Morning  .....................................          .  24 

Two  Loves   .......................................  24 

On  a  Country  Road  ................................  25 

Reincarnation   ..................................  25 

Analysis  .....................  26 

Tact'  ...................................  '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.  26 

In  Idleness    .......  .  ............................  .  ,',  27 

A  Burden  of  Vain  Wishes  .......................  ]  .  .  27 

Wisdom   ..........................................  28 

Lost  Days  ........................................  28 

Evening    .......................................  29 

Youth   .......................................  '.'.'.'.'.  29 

Tapestry    ...........................  ..............  30 

Sumach    .........................................  30 

*  )  *°~ 

2575 


f~\ 

0 


c 


PAGE 

Love   Letters    31 

December 31 

The  Flight  of  Time 32 

Late  Violets  32 

Autumn   Reveries    33 

Rosemary    33 

Dawn    34 

Noon 34 

Night    35 

Anniversary    35 

Happiness    36 

In  Days  To  Come 36 

Hero-Worship    37 

Waiting    37 

Dreams     38 

Affinity 38 

Laughter    39 

Sanctuary    39 

In  the   Beech  Woods 40 

Contentment    40 

Sorrow     41 

In  Winter   Paths    41 

Steadfastness    42 

Pictures    42 

Shadows 43 

Life's  Pantomime   44 

Seaward 45 

Laura  and  Petrarch  45 

Sea-Longings    46 

Spring    46 

Swallows 47 

Wild  Lilies  47 

En  Silhouette 48 

Sea-Memories    48 

Mother  and  Daughter   49 

Mother  and  Son   49 

Siwash    50 

Jason    50 

Death    51 

The  Lark    51 

Faults 52 

Sooke  Hills    52 

The  House  of  God 53 

Illusions 53 

Reticence   54 

The  Sun  Dial    54 

Something  Worth  While   55 

Madonna   Mia    .  .  55 


PAGE 

Tenderness    56 

Shells    56 

In  Absence   57 

Summer    57 

Roses    58 

To  You   58 

Midas    59 

Mount  Arrowsmith    59 

Other  Men    60 

Other  Women 60 

By  the  Firelight 61 

Wreck  Bay 61 

Before  the  Mirror   62 

Sea-Mysteries    62 

Heart's-ease    63 

Soul-Pact     63 

Sea-Harps 64 

Michael    Angelo    64 

A  Woman's  Charm   65 

Gypsies  65 

Contrasts   66 

Time's   Reckoning 66 

Lights  and  Shadows    67 

Autumn    67 

Cadboro  Woods 68 

In  Woodland  Ways   68 

Outdoors    69 

Dallas  Roads    69 

Courage    70 

Comradeship 70 

Metempsychosis   71 

Unrevealed    71 

I- or  Cecile 72 

Chopin    72 

Long   After    73 

The  Downs 73 

Bag-pipes 74 

Robert  Burns   74 

The  Shears  of  Fate  75 

From  a  Balcony    75 

Burnt-Offerings 76 

Stars  76 

Winter    77 

Mortmain  77 

Fame 78 

Driftwood 78 

At  the  Last .79 


Sonnets  to  a  Wife 

First  and  Second  Series 

Written  for  Cecile  McGaffey 


Copyrighted  1922 

By  Ernest  McGaffey 

All  rights  reserved 


PROEM 

Consider  then  the  lilies  of  the  field 
Even  such  as  they,  which  neither  toil  nor  spin ; 
Cloyed  with  faint  scent  that  mounts  as  ether  thin 
In  meadowy  ways  beneath  the  sun's  bright  shield. 
Lo!  with  sheer  joyance  is  their  languor  sealed 
Enwrapped  of   Spring,  to  April's  self  akin, 
Making  each  day  a  cloister,  where,  within 
Clad  all  in  white,  they  saint-like  seem  revealed. 
Grow  as  the  lilies;  stainless  and  serene 
Accepting  largess  of  the  sun  and  rain, 
Fresh  as  their  fragrance,  like  them,  lily-fair ; 
Free  as  their  life,  with  happiness  as  keen, 
Ever  remote  from  grief's  despite  or  pain 
Yourself  a  flower  more  precious  still  and  rare. 


Sonnets  to  a  Wife 

First  Series  of  Seventy 
^Begun  in  1899 


SONNET  I 
LIFE  AT  ITS  BEST 

Life  at  its  best  is  but  a  troubled  sea; 

The  ship  is  launched  with  snowy-spreading  sail 

To  face  the  reefs,  the  billows  and  the  gale 
And  meet  the  perils  that  are  yet  to  be. 
The  shore  she  left  fades  dimly  in  the  lee 

And  on  the  beach  the  forms  and  faces  fail ; 

Come  what  come  may,  or  rain  or  sun  or  hail 
The  ship  glides  on,  the  mariner  is  free. 

But  Ah!  what  joy  when  backward  o'er  the  foam 
From  stress  of  storms  and  far,  unfriendly  lands, 

Held  in  the  hollow  of  the  sky's  vast  dome 
To  mark  at  last  the  well-remembered  sands ; 

To  know  once  more  the  harbor  of  a  home 
And  welcome  of  a  woman's  outstretched  hands. 


SONNJST  II 

THE  WOOING 

Not  with  the  thoughts  of  others  do  I  seek 
To  wake  your  interest  and  hold  it  fast; 
Not  with  a  fancy  from  the  buried  past 

Some  honeyed  fragment  of  the  ancient  Greek, 

Have  I  essayed  in  halting  form  to  speak, 
But  I  have  all  such  cunning  outward  cast 
And  trusted  to  the  Saxon  words  at  last 

To  light  your  eyes — put  color  in  your  cheek. 

The  simplest  speech  is  truest;  when  I  say 

"I  love  you!"  in  those  three  words  I  have  said 

All  that  I  know,  or  compass,  or  can  feel. 

Let  those  who  will  adopt  the  tortuous  way 

The  while  their  thought  in  speech  obscure  is  led 

Round,  round  and  round,  a  wheel  within  a  wheel. 


SONNET  III 
IN  THE  FIELDS 

When  on  the  hills  the  golden  sunlight  lies, 
And  apple-trees  are  heavy  with  the  snow 
Of  drifted  bloom  that  shades  the  grass  below, 

While  far  above  are  realms  of  cloudless  skies ; 

When  overhead  the  wandering  swallow  flies 
And  butterflies  in  loops  of  color  go ; 
Then  as  we  wait  together  do  I  know 

Some  touch,  some  hint,  some  gleam  of  Paradise. 

The  sweet  song-sparrow  from  the  poplar  sings 

The   swaying   leaves   put   forth   their  emerald   shields, 

Each  trembling  blossom  where  the  barred  bee  clings 
Its  store  of  sweets  through  drowsy  hours  yields ; 

What  sense  of  life,  what  joy  that  almost  stings 
With  you  and  I  there  loitering  in  the  fields. 


10 

SONNET  IV 
JEALOUSY 

If  to  be  jealous  is  to  hope  to  gain 

Your  every  longing — make  all  other  men 

As  misty  to  your  memory  as  when 
The  shadows  slip  across  a  window-pane ; 
If  to  be  jealous  is  to  wish  to  reign 

Your  one  true  lover,  chide  me  once  again; 

Call  me  as  jealous  as  Othello  then 
And  all  your  chiding  will  be  given  in  vain. 

For  I  am  one  who  cannot  hide  my  thought 

And  curb  my  tongue  and  make  my  cheek  a  liar ; 

The  tissue  of  my  nature  was  not  wrought 
Of  lifeless  clay,  devoid  of  Pagan  fire, 

And  long  in  storm  and  anguish  have  I  sought 
And  now  have  found,  at  last,  my  Heart's  Desire. 


SONNET  V 
BOOKS 

Tomes  from  dull  minds  I  oftentimes  have  read 
And  disquisitions  of  the  great  and  wise, 
And  sought  to  learn  the  secrets  of  the  skies 

On  wintry  nights  with  starry  scripture  spread ; 

Through  all-absorbing  passage  have  I  sped 
Of  romance  and  of  deeds  of  high  emprise, 
But  nothing  found  compared  to  your  dear  eyes 

Nor  poems  like  to  what  your  lips  have  said. 

To  read  a  woman  in  the  higher  sense 
Is  quite  beyond  the  power  of  men's  wit ; 

Who  says  he  does  is  made  of  vain  pretense 
And  never  can  by  wisdom  benefit. 

Her  look  is  more  than  spoken  eloquence 
Her  voice  the  sweetest  lyric  ever  writ. 


11 


SONNET  VI 
LOVE  WITHOUT  PASSION 

Love  without  passion  is  a  flower  without  sun 
Reft  of  the  wind's  touch,  banished  from  the  rain, 
Wrought   against  nature — therefore   wrought    in   vain 

However  fine  its  tissue  may  be  spun ; 

Its  petals  fade  and  crumble  one  by  one 
And  in  the  dust  and  under  dust  are  lain ; 
Love  without  passion  is  the  dying  strain 

From  shattered  lutes  that  all  to  minors  run. 

True  love  is  as  the  rose ;  the  roses  glow 

With  life  and  color  in  the  summer  air; 
The  winds  of  Autumn  through  the  garden  blow 

The  leaves  are  scattered  and  the  vines  are  bare. 
The  snows  depart,  the  grass  springs  up  and  lo ! 

Again  the  ruddy  rose  is  blooming  there. 


SONNET  VII 
ON  THE  HILLS 

When  in  the  valley  where  the  river  ran 
And  sunlight  rippled  on  its  current  fair, 
While  shadowed  vistas  of  Autumnal  air 

Re-echoed  with  the  dying  notes  of  Pan : 

When  twilight's  herald  came  in  night's  dusk  van 
While  sank  the  sun  in  western  splendor  there, 
What  joy  for  you  and  me  all  this  to  share 

Mid  wooded  glades  and  chords  yEolian. 

And  in  the  hush  that  followed  as  we  saw 
The  after-glow  dye  deep  the  waiting  slopes, 

While  brooding  silence  hushed  the  sombre  rills. 
Then  fell  upon  our  hearts  a  happy  awe 

And  light  and  shade  of  mingled  fears  and  hopes, 
Star-signalled  on  the  ramparts  of  the  hills. 


12 

SONNET  VIII 
WORSHIP 

Gods,  idols,  fetiches  of  wood  and  stone 
Of  carven  ivory  and  of  beaten  brass, 
They  rise  and  fall,  they  flourish  and  they  pass 

Or  stand  disfigured  in  some  desert  lone; 

Creeds  come  and  go  and  on  the  sands  are  strown 
And  wither  like  the  winter-shaken  grass, 
And  all  such  things  are  shadows  on  a  glass 

To  this  one  love  which  I  for  you  have  known. 

For  in  my  Pagan  heart  I  hold  you  dear 

More  than  a  miser  might  his  store  of  gold; 

Or  ship-wrecked  tar  the  rescuing  sail  unfurled. 
In  my  religion  you  are  worship  here 
Beyond  all  Gods  or  temples  manifold, 
The  sole  and  only  woman  in  the  world. 


SONNET  IX 
RECOLLECTIONS 

To  conjure  up  old  memories;  to  say 
''Do  you  remember  that  in  such  a  June, 
An  orchard  oriole  sang  us  a  tune 

Melodiously  from  out  a  branching  spray 

Of  leafy  denseness ;  or  on  such  a  day 
We  saw  the  silver  spectre  of  the  moon 
Long  after  dawn,  and  nearing  unto  noon 

A  merest  wraith  of  sickle  gaunt  and  grey?" 

These  are  love's  echoes,  faintly  heard  and  fine 
But  ever-present,  never  dim  nor  mute 

That  you  and  I  in  comradeship  do  share ; 
Sweet  symphonies  that  breathe  a  sense  divine 
Like  mystic  chords  that  linger  by  a  lute, 

Though  all  the  silver  strings  are  shattered  there. 


13 


SONNET  X 
WOMEN 

Of  such  a  woman  it  may  well  be  said 

She  has  a  graceful  carriage;  or  is  fair; 

And  of  another  she  has  golden  hair 
And  praise  the  poise  and  beauty  of  her  head ; 
Some  women  may  be  witty  and  well  read 

And  some  may  charm  by  throats  and  bosoms  bare. 

All  are  Eve's  daughters,  all  her  power  share 
To  conquer  man  and  lead  him  by  a  thread. 

But  more  than  seeming  grace  or  outward  sign 
Of  loveliness  that  like  a  flower  is  seen, 

Is  what  she  keeps  shrined  sacred  and  apart ; 
Some  glow  of  soul  like  sparkle  in  the  wine 
Some  shadowy  look,  like  Autumn  pool  serene 
The  reflex  of  the  pureness  of  her  heart. 


SONNET  XI 
IDEALS 

Not  rhapsodies  for  what  we  cannot  reach 
Nor  longing  for  what  lies  beyond  our  power, 
But  just  to  make  life  lovely  as  a  flower 

By  gift  of  tenderness  in  thought  and  speech; 

Thus  rain  and  dew  their  loving  lessons  teach 
In  lace-like  gleam  or  sudden-dropping  shower, 
And  so  shall  we,  through  every  passing  hour 

Hold  fast  to  higher  visions,  each  for  each. 

Fidelity  and  courtesy ;  and  touch 

Of  hopefulness  to  meet  the  coming  years, 
And  strength  to  view  the  days  that  backward  roll, 
These  will  I  give  you,  and  in  pledging  such 

Cast  off  the  shadows  of  all  crowding  fears 
And  act  a  man's  part  truly,  heart  and  soul. 


14 


SONNET  XII 
IN  IDLE  HOURS 

In  idle  hours  to  backward  look  and  see 
The  tracery  of  wind  across  the  grass, 
To  mark  the  clouds  that  float  in  snowy  mass 

With  filmy-trailing  pennants  flowing  free; 

To  hear  a  robin  in  the  maple  tree, 

And  see  the  pool's  reflection  like  a  glass 
Where  light  and  shade  alternate  come  and  pass, 

With  muffled  mellow  murmurings  of  the  bee: 

This  was  to  drink  of  nature's  brimming  cup 
In  woodland  nooks  of  slumberous  solitude 

Where  summer  holds  a  golden  beaker  up 
And  all  the  earth  by  beauty's  self  is  wooed ; 

Do  you  remember  where  the  dead  leaf  fell 

The  violet's  blue,  the  empty  acorn  shell? 


SONNET  XIII 
SELFISHNESS 

I  want  no  child  to  take  one  jot  from  me 
Of  this,  your  love ;  no  helpless,  dimpled  hands 
To  hold  their  place  as  strong  as  iron  bands ; 

I'd  lock  your  heart  and  throw  away  the  key. 

As  now  you  are  so  I  would  have  you  be 

Till  from  Life's  glass  should  fall  the  latest  sands 
Till  on  the  hearth  the  ultimate  dull  brands 

Fade  out  and  leave  us  to  Eternity. 

I  know  the  children's  power;  and  I  know 

Your  soul  would  flower  and  blossom  to  a  child ; 

And  loving  you,  I  would  not  have  it  so 
Lest  I  of  my  sole  treasure  were  beguiled; 

To  learn  that  bitter  lesson  late  in  life 

How  far  a  mother  loves  beyond  a  wife. 


15 


SONNET  XIV 
MUSIC 

A  wind-song  in  the  rushes,  or  a  sigh 

From  Autumn's  chorus  in  the  naked  trees ; 
The  white-stoled  chanting  of  the  stately  seas 

Against  a  line  of  cliffs  that  tower  high — 

A  plover's  rippling  whistle  in  the  sky 
Or  wailing  of  the  flutes  in  minor  keys, 
I  in  my  time  have  harked  to  all  of  these 

And  reedy  plash  of  waters  lisping  by. 

But  Oh !  how  harsh  such  chords  must  ever  seem 
Since  in  my  heart  I  hear  an  echo  come 

More  sweet  and  low  than  plaint  of  mourning-dove; 
The  reflex  of  the  note  that  is  my  dream 
That  music  which  makes  other  music  dumb, 
The  voice  of  the  one  woman  whom  I  love. 


SONNET  XV 
A  WOMAN'S  WORLD 

The  man  she  loves;  and  all  he  means  to  her 
Is  what  a  woman's  world  is ;  in  her  way 
Of  living  and  of  loving  day  by  day 

Sometimes  her  dreaming  eyes  will  fill  and  blur, 

And  memories  of  him  will  come  to  stir 
Her  heart-strings ;  as  a  blossom's  self  might  sway, 
When  through  the  flowery-scented  paths  of  May 

Drift  down  the  echoes  of  the  winds  that  were. 

The  little  things  are  what  she  treasures  most; 
Sweet,  subtle  courtesies  of  hand  and  speech. 

For  these  the  lover's  attitude  still  teach 
Better  than  costly  gift  or  idle  boast; 
As  one  who  reckons  not  without  his  host 
Holding  her  near  and  dear,  yet  out  of  reach. 


10 


SONNET  XVI 
BY  MOONLIGHT 

In  shadow-haunted  hush  of  lonely  place 
With  ripples  lapping  by  the  reedy -shores, 
And  glint  of  stars  along  the  watery  floors 

I  see  again  the  profile  of  your  face; 

The  moonlight  trailed  across  your  wrist  like  lace 
Then  disappeared  behind  its  cloudy  doors, 
While  we  sat  idly  with  the  idle  oars 

Twixt  earth  and  sky,  as  balancing  in  space. 

How  strange  and  beautiful  to  us  it  seemed 
Held  in  the  hollow  of  the  night  to  float 
With  muffled  liquid  whisperings  round  the  boat 

\Vhile  overhead  the  constellations  dreamed; 

Seme  faint-heard  rustle  from  the  distant  sands 

And  silence  brooding  o'er  our  close-locked  hands. 


SONNET  XVII 
COMPANIONSHIP 

The  sense  of  comradeship  which  now  we  feel 
Grew  slowly  as  an  oak  does,  and  as  strong. 
For  now  to  one  another  we  belong 

In  all  that  makes  a  man  and  woman  leal ; 

Our  lives  are  linked  as  firm  as  welded  steel 

And  in  our  thoughts  sweet  harmonies  do  throng, 
Like  half-remembered  echoes  of  a  song 

As  days  and  nights  above  our  pathway  wheel. 

So  do  the  perfume  and  the  joy  of  days 
Live  with  us  and  the  season's  sway  dispute. 

Spring,  Summer,  Autumn,  they  may  go  their  ways 
And  bring  nor  bud  nor  blossom  an  it  suit; 

Yet  what  reck  we,  beside  the  wintry  fire 

Sitting  alone,  I  and  my  Heart's  Desire? 


17 


SONNET  XVIII 
APART 

Bleak,  saddened  hours,  when  separate  we  knew 
Days  when  the  sun  sank  glowing  in  the  west, 
And  quietly  the   shadows  onward  pressed 

Until  the  twilight  blotted  out  the  blue; 

The  first  faint  stars  came  slowly  to  the  view 
As  home-bound  birds  flew  silent  to  their  nest, 
While  swift  as  light  our  thoughts  in  eager  quest 

Pierced  outward,  yours  to  me  and  mine  to  you. 

Now  in  the  years  when  we  together  dream 
Those  days  apart  have  lost  their  sombre  look; 
Mere  dog-eared  pages '  of   Time's   well-thumbed   book 

And  not  to  us  belonging  do  they  seem. 
Thus  fate  at  last  hath  offered  full  amends 
And  made  those  lovers  who  were  once  but  friends. 


SONNET   XIX 
APPLE  TREES 

First  to  our  sight  their  branches  brown  and  bare 
Stood  naked  in  the  days  of  early  Spring, 
Where   haply   showed   the   brilliant  azure   wing 

Of    some  conceited  jay-bird   roaming  there; 

And  then  came  May  and  all  the  waiting  air 
Was   white  with  dainty  blossoms   quivering, 
With  hordes  of  bees  that  gathered  there  to  cling 

And  all  those  honeyed  sweets  to  claim  and  share. 

But  best  of  all  was  in  the  days  of  June, 
When  thick  and  full  the  canopy  of  leaves 
Put  back  the  sun  with  sheltering  emerald  eaves, 

And  housed  us  from  the  fervent  light  of  noon; 
How  happily  we  told  there  in  the  shade 
Of  dreams  of  one  another,  unafraid. 


18 


SONNET   XX 
RESERVE 

Some  men  proclaim  their  love  and  let  it  go 
In  pitiful  wild  words  that  all  may  see, 
How  they  have  sighed  or  bended  low  the  knee. 

God's  will  be  done;   I  was  not  fashioned  so; 

I  know  what  utter  love  is  and  I  know 
What  this  our  life  together  holds  for  me, 
But  keep  it  sacred,  as  not  meant  to  be 

Flung  gossip-ward  to  the  four  winds  that  blow. 

I  marvel  at  those  singers  who  aspire 
To  lay  their  souls  bare  to  the  rabble  throng; 
For  you  my  lips  have  trembled  into  song 

And  you  shall  judge  if  I  lack  aught  of  fire, 

If  that  my  heart-beats  have  not  rung  like  chimes 
Within  the  echoing  transept  of  these  rhymes. 


SONNET   XXI 
VANITY 

To  be  as  charming  in  your  husband's  sight 
As  erst  you  were  when  he  your  lover  came, 
Go  linger  by  the  mirror's  polished  frame 

And  put  all  weariness  to  utter  flight; 

Come  with  a  smile  and  let  your  eyes  be  bright 
Be  gay,  be  sad,  but  never  be  the  same ; 
And  thus  your  lover  you  may  always  claim 

Else  lost  mayhap  by  holding  him  too  light. 

An  this  be  vanity — to  add  a  rose 
To  glow  upon  your  bosom,  train  your  hair 
So  in  his  eyes  you  may  be  passing  fair — 

Why,  let  it  stand;  a  woman  better  knows 
That  careless  hands  and  sloven  taste  in  dress 
May  mar  the  spell  of  her  own  loveliness. 


19 


SONNET  XXII 
IN  THE  WOODS 

Deep  in  the  glimmering  depths  of  woods  to  wait 
Where  countless  leaves  with  every  breeze  unfold, 
To  watch  the  sunshine  weave  its  thread  of  gold 

Where  tree  trunks  stand  in  tall  procession  straight ; 

To  hear  the  flicker  challenging  his  mate 

With  chattering  note  far  piercing  clear  and  bold, 
And  mark  how  dimly  in  the  forest  old 

The  lights  and  shadows  softly  palpitate : 

And  there,  shut  closely  from  the  outer  world 
To  lie  on  some  green  slope  and  idly  dream. 

Touch  hands  and  smile  while  over  us  unfurled 
The  leafy  banners  of  the  noontide  gleam — 

That  was  to  find  the  Ponce  de  Leon  spring 

Of  youth,  and  hope,  and  blossoms  burgeoning. 


SONNET  XXIII 
GOLD 

There  is  a  gold  unlocked  by  miser's  key 
And  gold  is  found  in  lees  of  sparkling  wine, 
And  there  is  gold  along  the  swaying  vine 

Where  yellow  half-blown  roses  drooping  be; 

Gold  and  to  spare  among  the  sands  at  sea 
And  palest  gold  in  saffron  stars  that  shine ; 
With  gold  deep-digged  from  many  a  hidden  mine 

And  golden  leaves  upon  the  willow  tree. 

But  all  this  aureate  glitter  is  for  naught 
When  I  in  dreamful  mood  my  love  behold, 
Crowned  with  her  tangled  locks  of  tawny  gold 

Like  corn-silk  in  the  breeze's  meshes  caught; 
No  other  gold  may  match  it,  none  so  fair 
As  that  which  gathers  in  a  woman's  hair. 


20 


SONNET  XXIV 
TO  MY  WIFE 

I,  as  an  actor,  have  played  well  my  part 
Not  showing  how  the  sons  of  men  I  scorn ; 
Those    shriveled,    greedy    souls    who    crave    the    corn 

The  oil  and  wine,  the  treasures  of  the  mart ; 

Deep  in  my  soul  I  burn  the  flame  for  Art 
As  one  who  was  a  lyric  poet  born, 
As  one  who  leads  a  singer's  hope  forlorn 

Yet  with  unshrinking  and  unconquered  heart. 

I  can  exist  on  what  a  Spartan  can 

Endure  as  granite ;   smile   when   friends   do   fail ; 

Face  Poverty  and  see  the  years  grow  stale 
Or  bide  my  time  with  any  sort  of  man. 

Full  in  the  teeth  of  Fate  I  fling  the  glove 

Come  age,  come  death,  while  I  have  you  My  Love! 


SONNET  XXV 
A  WOMAN'S  LOVE 

If  I  have  fought  my  baser  self  and  raised 
My  thoughts  to  high  ideals,  it  is  due 
To  this  the  love  that  I  have  found  in  you 

As  I  in  your  dear  eyes  have  longing  gazed ; 

When  I  look  back  I  find  myself  amazed 
At  what  I  was ;  what  mire  I  floundered  through, 
So  far  I  wandered  from  the  pure  and  true 

While  all  my  good  intentions  fitful  blazed. 

A  man  is  half  a  savage  and  he  needs 

The  woman's  presence  to  arouse  his  soul ; 

Her  love  has  given  the  world  his  noblest  deeds. 
She  is  the  light  that  warns  him  from  the  shoal 

The  reefs — the  rocks — where  fell  destruction  leads 
And  dark  engulfing  waters  silent  roll. 


21 


SONNET  XXVI 
MIDSUMMER 

The   red-winged  black-bird  whistled   from  the   reeds 
The  cat-tail  stalks  rose  thickly  straight  and  tall, 
By  meadow-slopes  rang   sweet  a  carnival 

Of  bobolinks  down-fluttering  on  the  meads ; 

From  ribbon-grass  and  downy  road-side  weeds 
Fine  powdered  particles  of  dust  would  fall, 
And  where  the  sun  shone  through  an  old  stone  wall 

Danced  in  its  light  a  multitude  of  seeds. 

Then  came  a  hush  in  Nature — one  that  fell 
Like  shadows  on  the  leaves  so  soft  it  seemed, 

Or  like  that  pause  which  follows  when  a  bell 
Peals,  and  is  silent;  and  we  sat  and  dreamed, 

While  all  around  the  waters  wove  their  spell 
And   far  above   the  cloudless   azure  gleamed. 


SONNET  XXVII 
SISTERHOOD 

All  women  born  are  sisters ;  low  or  high 
Good,  bad,   indifferent  or  how   you  name, 
Your  silk-beruffled  and  most  haughty  dame 

Whose  ornate  motor  speeds  like  shadow  by, 

Your  drunken  courtesan  with  hair  awry 

Barred,    marred    and    scarred    by    branding    irons    of 

shame — 
Lo !  in  their  childhood  they  were  all  the  same 

And  have  no  false  distinctions  when  they  die. 

Oh!  sisters,  to  your  own  sex  most  unkind, 

How  will  it  fare  you  when  you  waste  your  breath 
And  sink  like  bubbles  in  the  sea  of  Death, 

If  to  your  sisters  you  were  deaf  and  blind? 
Remember  His  forgiveness,  which  sufficed 
For  Magdalen,  who  washed  the  feet  of  Christ! 


22 


SONNET  XXVIII 
WATER-LILIES 

We  rowed  the  boat  among  them  as  they  lay 
Pale  lilies,  snowy  and  with  hearts  of  gold, 
That  sprang  from  under  depths  of  oozy  mould 

And  starred  the  waters  of  a  Summer  day; 

And  I  remember  after,  that  in  play 

You  wound  them  round  your   forehead   fold  on   fold, 
And  feigned  you  were  a  Naiad,  shy  and  cold 

Or   water-sprite   or  mocking   woodland   fay. 

\  et  an  you  were  a  Naiad  this  I  know 

That  you  were  courted  by  the  amorous  sun, 
Who  kissed  your  creamy  lilies  one  by  one 

Till  they  had  drooped  beneath  his  fervent  glow; 
But  ere  they  withered  in  the  twilight  there 
They  left  their  gold  hearts  tangled  in  your  hair. 


SONNET  XXIX 
LOVE'S  PHILOSOPHY 

A  rock  stands  harmless  from  a  little  rain 

But  many  storms  will  wear  its  strength  away ; 
And  thus  in  life  when  men  and  women  say 

Those  bitter  words  which  hasten  strife  and  pain 

And  still  repeat  till  hope  of  peace  is  vain ; 
Lo !  as  the  hour-glass  sands  divide  the  day 
So  these  small  things  have  parted  them  for  aye, 

And  Love  through  such  harsh  means   itself  hath  slain. 

A  venomed  adder  is  the  human  tongue 

When  tipped  with  anger,  be  it  either  sex ; 
And  who  when  stirred  with  controversy,  recks 

How  deep  or  keen  the  cruel  words  have  stung? 
Curb  then  the  lips  and  emulate  the  dove 
Lest  wounding  one  whose  life  is  in  your  love. 


23 


SONNET  XXX 
TO   THE  WOMAN 

To  lead,  not  drive  him  is  the  wiser  plan 
For  tactfulness  will  tame  him  all  the  years, 
And  tenderness,  not  tyranny  he  fears 

For  men  were  ever  but  a  stubborn  clan ; 

And  long  ago  since  first  the  world  began 
And  stars  rose  dimly  in  the  primal  spheres, 
A   little  wit,  diplomacy,   and  tears 

What  havoc  have  they  wrought  with  every  man! 

So  shall  you  conquer  as  the  gentle  rain 
Soothing  his  vanity  to  gain  your  ends. 
Moulding  his  wishes  till  they  meet  your  own; 

Thus  as  a  child  his  confidence  you  gain 
For  still  to  flattery  his  heart  unbends, 
Only  a  child,  a  little  larger  grown. 


SONNET  XXXI 
TO    THE   MAN 

If  you  a  woman  would  desire  to  hold 
Faithful  and  true  and  guided  by  your  will, 
Be   sure   no  art  nor   flattery's   fine   skill 

Shall  e'er  deceive  her,  nor   will  gifts  or  gold; 

By  love  alone  her  spirit  is  controlled 
This  is  her  law,  her  Deity,  until 
The  light  falls  pale  upon  her  forehead  still 

The  red  lips  ashen  and  the  heart  grown  cold. 

So  shall  you  woo  her  if  you  wish  to  win 
Her  heart  and  soul,  to  wear  her  like  a  flower, 

To  drain  her  kisses  and  keep  back  her  tears ; 

Filling  with  love  the  space  she  lingers  in ; 
Making  her  dream  of  you  each  passing  hour 

With  trebled  longing  through  the  iron  years. 


24 


SONNET  XXXII 
MORNING 

The  kildee's  cry  along  the  sandy  shore 
The  pine-tops  in  the  distance,  and  a  still 
Far  sense  of  brooding  on  each  wooded  hill ; 

The  fallen  trunk  of  a  huge  sycamore 

Around  whose  roots  the  river's  waters  pour, 
And  everywhere  a   subtle  dawning   thrill 
That  grows  and  spreads  and  palpitates  until 

The  red  sun  peeps  above  the  eastern  door. 

What  joy  to  stand  above  our  vantage  ground 
Beneath  the  shade  of  overhanging  beech; 

To  drink  in  every  chord  of   sylvan  sound 

Learning  the  lessons  that  the  woods  can  teach; 

Our  hearts  and  souls  by  sympathy  thus  bound 
And  happy  more  in  thought  and  less  in  speech ! 


SONNET  XXXIII 
TWO  LOVES 

If,  loving  you,  I  sometimes  seem  as  sad 

Or  dull   or   tinged  with   hint  of   sober   mood, 

It  is  because  I  feel  my  life  renewed 
Having  your  love ;  and  still  my  treasures  add 
As  misers  do ;  and  what  of  woe  I've  had 

No  more  with  its  gaunt  shadows  may  intrude ; 

Thus  silence  fills  the  happy  interlude 
While  I  sit  wordless,  worshipping,  and  glad. 

A  boy's  love   and  a  man's   love   intertwined 

I  give  to  you  to  govern  all  the  time, 

Whether  it  run  to  reason  or  to  rhyme. 
The  passion  and  the  purity  combined; 

The  man's   love,   strong  to   fight  and  work   and  plan 

The  boy's,  to  wake  the  lover  in  the  man. 


25 


SONNET  XXXIV 
ON  A  COUNTRY  ROAD 

A  whitened  length  of  grayish  dust  that  leads 
Past  a  rough  bridge  where  grape-vines  idly  trail 
From  distant  woods  the  whistle  of  a  quail 

And  butterflies  that  flit  above  the  weeds. 

Horizonward  a  bluish  haze  recedes 
And  flaunts  a  snowy  cloud-shape  like  a  sail ; 
The  scent  of  strawberries  along  a  swale 

Comes  pungcntly  to  anyone  who  heeds. 

How  slowly  and  how  joyous  passed  that  day 
The  wayside  roses  climbing  in  a  throng ; 

The  far-brought  odor  of  the  new-mown  hay 
The  cherries  dangling  as  we  rode  along ; 

And  cheering  us  along  the  homeward  way 

The  sweet-wrough*  flirtings  of  the  robin's  song ! 


SONNET  XXXV 
REINCARNATION 

The  flower  you  gathered,  blossomed  long  ago 
Warmed  by  past  sunshine,  jeweled  with  the  rain 
Of  bygone  years ;  the  river's  liquid  strain 

Which  now  you  hear  was  cnce  the  purling  flow 

Of  a  lost  stream;  the  very  winds  that  blow 
Have  come  and  gone,  will  come  and  go  again; 
And  where  the  primal  grass  has  decked  the  plain 

Year  after  year  the  later  grasses  grow. 

And  thus  with  every  line  that  lovers  trace ; 

However  dear  or  passionate  the  word, 

The  self-same  thought  in  a  dead  bosom  stirred 
Has  brought  the  roses  to  some  woman's  face ; 

And  all  the  worship  that  my  rhyming  brings 

Is  but  an  echo  of   forgotten  things. 


26 


SONNET  XXXVI 
ANALYSIS 

To  weigh  as  in  a  finely  balanced  scale 

Each  thought  and  action  that  the  season  brings, 
Is  but  to  fret  the  spirit  with  those  things 

Which   after   all   are  of    the    least   avail. 

It  is  enough  to  know  we  shall  not  fail 
In  all  the  sweet  and  high  imaginings, 
The  nobler  thoughts  which  lend  to  Love  his  wings 

Though  Time  and  Fate  and  even  Death  assail. 

Analysis  is  common,  and  may  seem 

Through  instances,  conclusive  as  the  leaf 
Borne  to  the  Ark  by  the  returning  dove ; 

But  oftentimes  may  prove  to  be  a  theme 
Which  sends  the  worm  of  jealousy  and  grief 
To  blight  the  blossom  of  a  perfect  love. 


SONNET  XXXVII 
TACT 

A  woman's  crowning  glory  is  her  tact 

The  art  of  knowing  when  and  what  to  say; 

When  to  be  grave,  indifferent,  or  gay, 
And  seem  so  charming  in  her  every  act 
That  as  a  magnet  she  will  men  attract 

And  easily  compel  them  to  her   sway. 

So  shall  she  rule,  or  golden  hair  or  gray 
The  subtlest  type  of  womanhood  in  fact. 

For  tact  is  more  than  beauty,  more  than  wit 
Akin  to  genius,   and  the   sum   of   all 

Which  makes  the  woman  who  is  blessed  with  it, 
A  Queen  by  right  in  hovel  or  in  hall ; 

Sweet  as  the  honeyed  lines  by  poet  writ 
And  true  as  rings  the  wild-bird's  madrigal. 


27 


SONXETT  XXXVIII 
IN  IDLENESS 

To  lie  upon  the  grass  and  watch  the  herds 
Deep  standing  in  the  river,  and  to  see 
The  barred  gold  glisten  on  the  bumble-bee 

And  note  the  noisy  gossip  of  the  birds ; 

To  mark  the  blue  horizon-rim  that  girds 
That  purple  world  beyond,  Infinity — 
Under  the  shade  of  a  wild-cherry  tree 

To  wait  and  listen,  hampered  not  by  words: 

This  was  our  gladness  on  a  long  June  day 
Companioned  by  the  lazy  lapse  of  hours, 

While  ebbed  the  slow,  enchanted  time  away 

Where  bird-songs  came  like  intermittent  showers 

And  drowsy  sweet  upon  us  where  we  lay, 
The  perfume  of  the  elderberry  flowers. 


SONNET  XXXIX 
A  BURDEN  OF  VAIN  WISHES 

A  burden  of  vain  wishes ;   hopes  that  died 
Vague  dreams  of   fame  and  wraiths  of  brave  renown 
Pass  in  the  sunlight,  motes  that  vanish  down 

Beyond   me,    standing   on   this   old  hill-side, 

And  disappear  in  circling  vistas  wide 

Like  Autumn   leaves  that  scatter  worn  and  brown, 
When  Summer  lays  aside  her  tattered  crown 

And  sombre   winds  and  rusted  fields  abide. 

A  burden  of  vain  wishes !     Nay,  not  so ! 

Your  hand-clasp  is  my  haven  and  my  hope, 
Your  love  and  faith  the  utmost  gross  and  scope 

Of  dreams  and   fact — this  at  the  last  I   know, 
Here,  waiting  while  the   sunset's  after-glow 
Burns  like  a  torch  in  valley  and  on  slope. 


23 

SONNET   XL 
WISDOM 

There  is  a  culture  deeper  far  than  books 
And  intellect  beyond  the  ken  of  schools; 
Wise  sayings  sometimes  on  the  lips  of  fools 

And   knowledge    stored   in   many   quiet   nooks. 

A  woman  is  as  cultured  as  she  looks 

Speaks,  acts,  and  smiles,  and  merely  bookish  rules 
She  well  may  scorn  as  being  clumsy  tools 

With  which  dull  fishers  file  their  rusty  hooks. 

This  intellect  that  scholars  prattle  of 

Why,  what  does  it  accomplish?     Every  age 

Has  witnessed  through  the  perfidy  of  Love 
How  woman  shows  the  folly  of  the  sage ! 

Nay !   then,    Sir   Oracle,   reserve  thy   wit 

Some  woman's  eyes  shall  give  thee  need  of  it. 


SONNET   XLI 
LOST  DAYS 

The  tapestry  of  shadows — ghosts  of  dreams 
That  flickered  through  the  silence  and  were  gone, 
Lost  days  that  we  together  leaned  upon 

Have  faded ;  and  the  recollection  seems 

As  dim  as  sunken  starlight  in  the  streams, 
When  on  a  Summer  night  reflections  wan 
From  cloudy  heights  to  watery  depths  are  drawn, 

To  glimmer  in  the  current's  under-gleams. 

Lost  days  but  cherished ;  mirrored  in  a  haze 

Of  threadbare  seasons,  Winter,  Autumn,  Spring; 

And  Summer  with  her  moss-begirdled  ways 
And  flash  and  flutter  of  a  bird's  soft  wing; 

But  who  shall  pierce  the  labyrinthian  maze 
To  tell  us  where  their  shades  are  wandering? 


SONNETT    XLH 

EVENING 

The  tree-toad's  call  from  branches  cool  and  green 
And  from  the  grass  a  cricket's  rasping  cry; 
An   afterglow  across   the   Eastern   sky 

Red  as  a  far-fiung  fire-brand's  ruddy  sheen; 

The    lapping    of    swift    ripples    shot    between 
Old  logs  that  rigid  in  the  current  lie, 
The  shadow  of  our  boat  that  passes  by 

Above  brown  sands  that  dimly  now  are  seen : 

This  was  to  float  with  silence  and  the  night 
Wove  through  the  mesh  of  twilight  like  a  strand 

To  note  the  twisting  of  a  bat's  weird  flight 
And  glint  of  fire-flies  on  the  shelving  sand, 

To  be   removed    from   earthly  essence   quite 
Two  shadows  drifting  into  shadow-land. 


SONNET  XLIII 
YOUTH 

Age  is  not  always  given  with  gray  hair 

Nor  youth  encompassed  in  the  fewest  years; 
Since  doubt  and  pain  with  their  attendant  tears 

Are  dauntless  etchers  of  the  lines  of  care; 

Youth  is  most  present. in  the  joys  we  share 
As  swift  or  slow  the  season  disappears, — 
The  verve,  the  gladness  which  puts  by  all  fears 

The  hopes  we  nourish  and  the  smiles  we  wear. 

I  think  of   you  as  always  being  young 
Untouched  by  sorrow  and  unworn  by  time, 
Spring's  blossoms  opening  in  your  tender  smile; 

Like  her  of  whom  the  elder  Bards  have  sung 
Chanting  her  praise  in  many  a  noble  rhyme — 
Like   Cleopatra  by   Egyptian   Nile. 


30 


SONNET  XLIV 
TAPESTRY 

In  the  deep  twilight  when  my  random  thought 
Weaves  in  the  silence  and  surrounding  shade, 
Webs  of  odd  fancies  glittering  like  brocade 

Or  sombre  woof  of  darker  musings  brought; 

Then  have  the  hours  with  mystery  still  fraught 
Full  on  the  wall  a  motley  texture  laid, 
Within  the  loom  of  darkness  spun  and  made 

In  divers  hues  together  firmly  wrought. 

And  all  the  warp  of  this  weird  spinning  seems 
Forever  old  and  yet  forever  new ; 

With  rusted  spots  and  sudden  golden  gleams 
A  subtle  blending  of  the  false  and  true ; 

The  dull  threads  hinting  of  my  wasted  dreams 
The  bright  ones  telling  of  my  love  for  you. 


SONNET  XLV 
SUMACH 

We  climbed  the  slope  above  the  valley's  edge 
Behind,   the  country  road  a  ribbon  lay 
Of  powdery  dust  down-winding  dim  and  gray; 

A  bird  sang  sweetly  from  a  thorny  hedge 

And  ripples  circled  in  the  jiver  sedge, 

While  brown  October  dozed  the  hours  away ; 
And  northward  and  beyond  the  hillside  clay 

The  clustering  sumach  flamed  along  a  ledge. 

The  life  of  ruddy  Autumn  filled  its  veins 

Deep-glowing  masses  glinting  in  the  sun, 
Redder  than  the  wild  strawberry  where  it  stains 
The  woodland  ways  mid  light  and  shadow  spun 
A  gorgeous  dream,  a  color-draught  divine 
Spilled  on  the  golden  afternoon  like  wine. 


31 


SONNET  XLVI 
LOVE  LETTERS 

Let  the  light  flame  consume  them  and  be  done 
While  their  charred  fragments  in  the  embers  lie, 
The  old,  sweet  record  of  the  days  gone  by 

Read  them  and  burn  them,  lingering  one  by  one ; 

The  swift  months  gather  and  the  seasons  run 
With  none  to  tell  us  of  the  when  or  why ; 
Let  them  as  ashes  vanish  in  the  sky 

Since  this  our  courtship  has  but  just  begun. 

Better  to  miss  them  when  we  parted  be 
Than  through  some  fault  or  lapsing  of  the  years, 
To  have  them  made  a  target  for  the  sneers 

Or  jest,  or  scorn,  of  Curiosity; 

For  there  are  those  who  tear  such  things  apart 
To  feast  and  mumble  on  a  human  heart. 


SONNET  XLVII 
DECEMBER 

The  sleet  drives  sharply  on  the  window-panes 
And   naked  trees   like   scaffolds   darkly   stand; 
The  sudden  grasp  of  winter  on  the  land 

Locks  fields  and  streams  in  glittering  icy  chains; 

The  north-wind  wails  in  keen  Polaric  strains 
And  dead  leaves  dance  a  ghostly  saraband, 
While  cloud-fleets  dim,  by  shapes  fantastic  manned 

Sail  westward  where  the  sunset  coldly  wanes. 

But  by  the  blaze  of  our  red-glowing  grate 
We    see   beyond   the   armored    line   of    eaves, 
And  mark  the  flashing  of  a  flicker's  wing; 

And  violets  in  the  blue  flames  seem  to  wait 
While  shining  through  a  mist  of  latticed  leaves, 
Beckons  and  laughs  the  sweet,  fresh   face  of   Spring. 


32 


SONNET  XLVIII 
THE  FLIGHT  OF  TIME 

The  flight  of  Time  will  through  the  cycles  wing 
And  one  age  follow  on  another's  path ; 
The  leaves  of  May  will  feel  November's  wrath 

And  January  blossom   into   Spring; 

And  side  by  side  we  onward  wandering 
Shall  learn  the  lesson  that  each  season  hath, 
The  bud  and  shard,  the  glow  and  aftermath 

The  hopes  that  vanish  and  the  dreams  that  cling. 

A  day  is  like  a  swallow's  shadow  cast 
On  sleeping  waters;   for  an  instant  there 
Etched  by  the   restless  pinion  in  mid-air 

Vague  and  elusive  as  the  fleeting  past ; 
So  let  us  cleave  to  gladness  in  our  day 
While  Time,  that  miser,  hoards  the  hours  away. 


SONNET  XUX 
LATE  VIOLETS 

Fast-hidden  in   October's  grassy  swales 
Late  violets  lay;  we  found  them,  you  and  I 
While   gusty   winds    unbridled   galloped   by 

And  smoky  Indian-summer  filled  the  vales ; 

And  when  the  grass  divided  in  the  gales 
They  glinted  there  like  bits  of  Autumn  sky, 
Then  disappeared  as   sylvan   fairies   shy 

When  clamor  rude  their  close  retreat  assails. 

Late  violets;  blue  as  deep-sea  depths  unstirred 
They  nestled  there ;  and  heard  the  pulse  of  earth 
Reverberate  within  its  hollow  girth 

Like  to  a  giant  echo   faint  and  blurred ; 
And  far  beyond  the  sweep  of  Winter's  wing 
We  saw  their  paler  sisters  of  the  Spring. 


33 


SONNET   L 
AUTUMN  REVERIES 

Along  the  slopes  the  fading  stubbles  show 
And  in  the  woods  a  purple  vapor  swims, 
While  hickory-nuts  from  the  wind-shaken  limbs 

Drop  down  and  nestle  in  the  leaves  below ; 

The  sumach  burns  with  ever-deepening  glow 
And  shadows   lurk  about  the  shallow  rims 
Of  silent  pools;  while  eastward  slowly  dims 

The  penciled  flight  of  a  departing  crow. 

And  you  and  I  here  on  this  russet  hill 

Drink  deep  the  beaker  of  Autumnal  wine, 

Held  to  our  lips;  and  feel  the  nameless  thrill 
That  ebbs  and  flows  in  changing  shade  and  shine ; 

The  breeze  is  dead ;  the  trees  are  rapt  and  still 
As  pilgrims  kneeling  at  a  desert  shrine. 


SONNET  LI 
ROSEMARY 

Rosemary   for   remembrance — may  this  be 
A   leaf   where  treasured  happiness   is   sealed 
Unknown  to  others ;  which  to  us  will  yield 

(Our   memory  the  magic  opening  key) 

A  fragrant  scent  of  the  lost  days  set  free 
A  music  to  our  listening  ears  revealed; 
As  a  rough  shell  that  sometimes  holds  concealed 

The  myriad  murmurous  secrets  of  the  sea. 

For  something  to  the  written  line  belongs 

Beyond  the  word  that's  uttered;  through  the  pen 
This  verse  mayhap  shall  come  to  live  again 

And  take  its  place  among  remembered  songs; 
When  you  and  I  and  all  our  love  and  trust 
Are  blended  into  long- forgotten  dust. 


34 

SONNET  LII 
DAWN 

The  grey  dawn  flooded  in  the  lonely  room 

That  mourned  your  absence;  on  the  western  wall 
The  sallow  shafts  of  sunbeams  struck,  to  fall 

As  sadly  as  they  would  across  a  tomb ; 

A  shadow  in  the  corner  was  a  plume 

That  night  had  dropped  from  off  her  sable  pall ; 
A  thorny  rose  stood  leafless  in  the  hall 

Your  going  thus  had  robbed  it  of  its  bloom. 

The  very  pictures  were  aware  of  this 
As  silver-stoled  and  silent  slowly  came 
The  first  reluctant  messengers  of  dawn; 

Of  all  you  are  and  all  you  are  to  miss 

Byron  seemed  speaking   from  his  oval   frame, 
And  Greek  Aspasia  whispered  "she  is  gone!" 


SONNET  UII 
NOON 

The  book  I  hold  within  my  idle  clasp 

Is  closed  and  sealed  for  aught  I  care  indeed; 
My  mind  has  now  no  leisure  hour  to  read 

No  tale  of  love  nor  old  romance  to  grasp ; 

My  thoughts   hang   shattered  as   a  broken   hasp 

And  touch   of   hands,   not   Fancy's  touch   I   need; 
For  since  you  left  my  heart  begins  to  bleed 

Where  Memory  has  pierced  it  like  an  asp. 

To  love  you  and  to  lose  you  for  a  day 
A  loss  irreparable  to  me  it  seems — 
The  sting  of  Fate,  the  worm  that  never  dies. 

I  cannot  live  to  have  you  long  away 
And  see,   alas !   as  only  in  my  dreams 
The  light  of  recognition  in  your  eyes. 


35 


SONNET  LIV 
NIGHT 

What  shadows  troop  across  the  fading  floor 

What  hush  floats  ever  as  the  shadows  turn ! 

Like  ashes  brooding  in  a  sullen  urn 
Mocking  the  shades  of  those  who  went  before, 
My  thoughts  lie  heavy,  and  I  dream  no  more 

But  ever  for  your  absent  face  I  yearn; 

And  grudgingly  my  sombre  lesson  learn 
Of  waiting  for  your  footstep  at  the  door. 

Mayhap  my  wish  is  selfish;  just  to  see 
Your  hand  in  mine ;  to  know  that  you  are  here 
Close,  with  the  lyrics  of  your  tears  or  smiles.; 

I  cannot  say  what  this  will  mean  to  me, 
Nor  all  the  ways  in  which  I  hold  you  dear 
Across  this  void  of  unrelenting  miles. 


SONNET  LV 
ANNIVERSARY 

This  is  that  day  of  days  when  long  ago 
We  stood  together  by  an  ancient  man, 
And  heard  him  drone  about  the  Scriptural  plan 

Which  plighted  men  and  women  here  below; 

And  westward  burned  the  Autumn  afterglow 
\Vhile  scarlet  vines  across  the  branches  ran, 
And  flying  leaves,  a  russet  caravan 

Fled  down  the  vales  in  rustling  overflow. 

I  scarcely  recollect  the  spoken  words, 

Nor  care  I  for  the  ceremony  vain 

Which  said  forsooth  that  God  had  made  us  one, 
Since  Love  had  mated  us  as  mate  the  birds — 

And  on  the  windows  was  the  west's  bright  stain 

The  parting  benediction  of  the  sun. 


36 


SONNET  LVI 
HAPPINESS 

Not  to  be  happy  in  our  own  conceit 

Of   faith,  and  truth,  and  well-remembered  days, 

In  breezy  woods  and  empty  pastoral  ways 
Where  the  brown  waves  of  leaves  Autumnal  beat; 
But  more  to  wish  that  other  souls  may  meet 

And  find  their  comrades  in  this  earthly  maze ; 

That  men  and  women  like  to  us  will  gaze 
Each  in  each  other's  eyes  and  find  life  sweet. 

When  you  and  I  together  silent  wait 

Not  only  do  these  thoughts  of  Thee  and  Me, 

Knock  at  our  hearts  as  at  an  inner  gate 
But  through  the  wonder  and  the  mystery, 

Deep  in  our  dreams  we  pray  a  kindly  fate 
For  lovers  past,  and  lovers  yet  to  be. 


SONNET  LVII 
IN  DAYS  TO  COME 

In  days  to  come  when  we  are  old  and  gray 
Bent  with  the  years  and  disciplined  by  Time, 
Trembling  and  feeble  we  will  scan  this  rhyme 

Whose  light  for  us  has  almost  dimmed  away, — 

And  haply  then  remember  if  we  may 

Some  sweet  suggestion  of  our  youth  sublime, 
Some  keen  reminder  which  like  pungent  thyme 

Shall  bring  the  memory  of  our  Summer  day. 

There  is  no  life  but  loving;  naught  but  Youth 
To  make  love  perfect ;  when  the  rose-leaves  fall 
The  perfume  withers  while  the  birds  are  dumb. 

And  thus  indeed  I  could  in  very  truth 

Pray  that  we  both  might  early  yield  this  thrall, 
And  so  lose  Winter  in  the  days  to  come. 


37 

SONNET    LVIII 
HERO-WORSHIP 

To  every  man  some  doting  woman  lends 

A  halo  of  enchantment ;  in  her  eyes 

He  is  most  noble,  loving,  brave  and  wise; 
This  worship  like  to  incense  pure  ascends 
And  with   her   dreams    in   painted   glamour   blends 

Like  rainbow  melting  in  the  western  skies; 

His   lightest  word  is   something  dear  to  prize 
His   chance   caress    for    sorrow    full   amends. 

Oh,  mystery!   that  woman  cannot  see 

Her  own  superiority  to  man, 

Which  soars  on  high  like  eagle's  wing  above- 
Just  as  it  was,  has  been,  will  ever  be 

Because  ordained  by  God's  primeval  plan, 

Her  greater   faith,   fidelity,  and  love. 


SONNET   LIX 
WAITING 

To  picture  you  when  far  apart  from  me 
To  guess  how  you  might  occupy  the  day ; 
Whether  the  moments  slowly  glide  away 

And  if  the  hours  or  swift  or  tedious  be; 

And  never  from  this  patient  vigil  free 
But  like  a  statue  in  the  sculptor's  clay, 
Musing  and  brooding,  or  as  Moslems  pray 

Stretching  my  hands   through  silence  out  to   thee. 

There  is  so  little  time,  Love,  after  all 
To  walk  together;   such  a  little  while 
Before  our   lives  will  melt  as   in  a  breath ; 

How  soon,  Alas,  the  leaves  of  April  fall ! 
How  much  I  miss  the  joyance  of  your  smile 
And  waiting   seems  the  bitterness  of   death. 


38 

.SONNET   LX 
DREAMS 

Not  always  have  we  prudent  sowed  the  seed 
Of  thoughts  prosaic,  as  to  wisely  reap 
The   less    impassioned   memories   that   keep 

Our  lives  more  commonplace  in  word  and  deed; 

For  Fancy  sometimes  blows  upon  her  reed 
And  Romance  dimly  rises,  half-asleep, 
While  over  heart  and  brain  and  spirit  sweep 
Faint  chords  like  wings  from  opened  cages  freed. 

Either  a  song  of  gladness  or  of  tears 
In  sunshine  rippling  or  on  shadow  cast, 
Thus  to  our  ears  this  mocking  music  seems ; 

Something  to  listen  for  through  flying  years 
Rapt  echoes  of  the  future  or  the  past, 
The   respite  and  the  recompense  of  dreams. 


SONNET   LXI 
AFFINITY 

The  sparks  fly  always  upward,  and  my  soul 

Spreads  wings  to  meet  yours  as  its  one  true  mate, 
Whether  the  paths  be  blossom-crowned  or  strait 

Whether  in  gladness  or  in  bitter  dole; 

No  voice  but  yours  can  soothe  me  or  control 
No  words  save  yours  my  ways  illuminate; 
I  am  content  to  follow,  lead  or  wait 

My  eyes  fixed  ever  on  the  distant  goal. 

Not  oak  and  vine  are  we  but  lovers  twain 
Who  face  the  world  together  side  by  side, 
And   so  shall  bide  until  our   latest  breath; 

In  storm  or  shine,  in  burning  sun  or  rain 

Through  life's  long  ways  in  comradeship  allied. 
Not  to  be  parted  by  the  hands  of  death. 


39 

SONNET  LXII 
LAUGHTER 

The  touch  of  mirth  still  cherish  as  is  best 
Laughter,  with  lips  slow-spreading  to  a  smile ; 
What  were  this  world  without  the  quip  and  wile 

The  cap  and  bells,  the  old  time-honored  jest 

And  subtle  tang  of  humor's  Attic  zest; 

Still  with  your  merriment  the  way  beguile, 
A  little  joy  shall  last  the  longest  while 

Be  gay,  look  up,  be  merry  with  the  rest. 

For  mark  the  limpid  quibbles  of  the  streams 

The  joyousness  that  sunshine   scatters   far, 

The  crooning  exultation  of  the  sea ! 
Better  be  glad  with  careless  John-a-Dreams 

Than  linger  where  the  sober  sages  are, 

And  lose  the  wiser   sense  of   jollity. 


SONNET  LXIII 
SANCTUARY 

As  from  the  toil  and  turmoil  of  the  world 
I  come  to  bring  good  fortune  or  defeat, 
And  once  again  your  loving  eyes  to  meet 

Then  droops  the  rest,  like  a  lone  banner  furled 

By  idle  winds;   for  all  my  thoughts  are  whirled 
Toward  you  like  a  cloud  of  swallows  fleet; 
And  all  the  cares  that  follow  at  my  feet 

Like  wraiths  against  the  darkness  back  are  hurled. 

Home  is  where  love  is,  and  no  doubt  can  pierce 
That  inner  space  where  you  and  I  do  dwell, 

Nor  cast  a  lurking  shadow  on  its  floor ; 
However  beats  the  tide  beyond  us  fierce 
However  prowls  with  ululating  yell, 
The  ever- watchful  wolf  beside  the  door. 


40 


SONNET  LXIV 
IN    THE   BEECH    WOODS 

Broad  screens  which  shut  the  dawnlight  from  the  earth 
Of  virent  leaves  dense  woven  thick  across; 
And  under  foot  were  strips  of  velvet  moss 

That  sloped  around  the  beech-trees'  mighty  girth. 

No    bird-song    breaking    into    sudden    mirth 
But  silence,  and  a  sadness  for  such  loss, 
With  here  and  there  a  shred  of  sunlight's  gloss 

To  lighten  up  the  forest's  flowerless  dearth. 

So  must  the  Eden  garden  once  have  stood 

When  Adam  and  his  bride  went  on  their  way ; 
No  birds  nor  flowers  in  the  pleasant  wood 
But  sombre  aisles  and  solemn  spaces  gray. 
Do  you  remember  how  we  found  it  there  ? 
A  green  cathedral  ghostly-still  and  bare! 


SONNET  LXV 
CONTENTMENT 

To  glean  the  fields  of  life  and  take  the  grain 

With  thorns  or  poppies  as  the  Gods  decree; 

To  lightly  jest  at  Winter's  wrath  and  see 
Flowers  in  frost  upon  the  window-pane; 
To  build  our  airy  castle-walls   in   Spain 

However  bare  the  near  surroundings  be — 

This  is  the  secret  of  content;  the  key 
Which  men  have  given  all  the  world  to  gain. 

We  find  it  where  the  sun  and  shadows  meet 
In  sylvan  spaces  cloistered  from  the  town, 

Where  vague   yet  clear   its   presence  may  be   seen 
It  rustles  in  the  dead  leaves  at  our  feet 
It  catches  at  the  ruffle  of  your  gown, 
And  beckons  on  with   happy  eyes   serene. 


41 

SONNET  LXVI 
SORROW 

The  saving  grace  of  sorrow  has  been  ours 

So  that  this  present  happiness  is  sweet ; 

Yea !  doubly  so  since  long  ago  our  feet 
Were  pierced  by  thorns,  and  seldom  touched  by  flowers ; 
Past  sadness  with  a  rarer  joy  endowers 

These  days  in  which  our  pulses  higher  beat; 

Like  blossoms  which  uplift,  the  sun  to  greet 
After  the  stress  of  sudden  chilling  showers. 

Fire  tempers  steel;  and  thus  the  test  of  pain 

Shall  make  souls  steadfast,  and  the  true  heart  strong 

And  bring  tranquillity  from  stormy  years ; 
Life's  cruel  lessons  are  not  learned  in  vain 
And  rightly  runs  the  burden  of  the  song, 

"They  lightest  laugh  who  knew  the  touch  of  tears." 


SONNET  LXVI  I 
IN   WINTER   PATHS 

The  tumbled  drifts  like  fixed  and  frozen  seas 
Are  billowed  up  around   us  all  in  white, 
The  swirling  winds  on  leafless  branches  smite 

And  round  about  the  trunks  of  naked  trees 

Flit  restlessly  the  black-capped  chickadees 
Shy  bits  of  grey  in  brief  and  silent  flight; 
The  woods  are  blacker  than  at  dead  of  night 

And   under   icy  shields   the   waters    freeze. 

Rut  yonder  was  a  spray  where  on  a  time 
The  robin  sang;   in  that  lone  reach  remote 

Wild   violets  gathered,   bluer   than   the    sea; 
Nor  shall  this  dearth  banish  the  water's   rhyme 
The   green   of   the   grass,    the   blue-bird's   April   note, 
While  side  by  side  you  wander  here  with  me. 


42 


SONNET  LXVIII 
STEADFASTNESS 

We  will  not  dread  the  future  nor  the  past 
There  is  enough  to  live  for  day  by  day, 
Time  and  to  spare  for  either  work  or  play 

And  the  long  slumber  coming  at  the  last; 

God  and  Eternity  are  much  too  vast 

To  fret  us  while  we   linger  by  the  way. 
Sometimes  we  shall  be  sad  and  sometimes  gay 

But  heart  with  heart  and  hand  in  hand  stand  fast. 

Let  others  seek  the  solace  of  the  shrine 
Under  the  cryptic  and  inscripted  dome 

That  shuts  from  sight  the  far  blue  heavens  above 
For  us  the  essence  of  the  true  divine 
The  human  joys  that  touch  and  sweeten  home — 
And  that  denied   the   angels — which  is   Love. 


SONNET  LX1X 
PICTURES 

There  have  been  pictures  that  were  reckoned  fair 
In  olden  times  by  cunning  painters  wrought. 
And  far  across  the  tides  of  ocean  brought 

To  hang  at  last  like  jewels  old  and  rare 

In  stately  halls;  but  none  that  would  compare 
To  some  one  woman,  by  the  Graces  taught, 
With  roses  at  her  bosom,  perfume-fraught 

Arid  rnotes  of  golden  sunlight  in  her  hair. 

Time  picks  their  crumbling  canvas  into  shreds 
Till  dust  at  length  it  sinks  in  the  abyss, 

And  with  the  winds  in  errant  circle  blows; 
But  ere  Fate  comes  to  snip  the  tightened  threads 
There  is  no  picture  which  is  like  to  this — 
The  one  fair  woman — at  her  breast  a  rose. 


43 


SONNET  LXX 
SHADOWS 

If  we  are  naught  but  shadows,  as  they  say 
Seen  briefly  as  a  sunset  while  we  pass, 
If  life  is  tinkling  cymbals — sounding  brass — 

And  love  a  dream  that  quickly  fades  away 

Fate  may  not  rob  us ;  we  have  had  our  day ; 
Have  heard  the  music  and  have  drained  our  glass. 
And  if  we  are  to  perish  as  the  grass 

Death  cannot  quench  the  spark  which  lit  our  clay. 

For  Love  beyond  all  else  is  vestal  flame 
That  burns   forever,  constant  as   is  Time 

Steadfast  and  bright  as  is  the  Northern  star; 
And  when,  like  mist,  we  vanish  as  we  came 
Mayhap  our  passion  shall  imbue  this  rhyme 
With  life  for  others,  shadows  though  we  are. 


44 


Sonnets  to  a  Wife 

Second  Series  of  Seventy 
Begun  in  1909 


SONNET  LXXI 
LIFE'S   PANTOMIME 

I  act  a  role  in  life's  crude  pantomime 
As  one  who  stands  behind  the  prison  bars, 
And  sees  above  him  never-faltering  stars 

March  on,  march  on,  in  majesty  sublime; 

Still  in  my  heart  do  lyric  echoes  chime 
Still  on  my  brow  I  wear  a  singer's  scars, 
And  know  the  gnawing  agony  which  mars 

The  one  who  sells  his  birthright  for  a  rhyme. 

Yet  after  all,  the  part  is  played  for  you 
As  half-amused,  half-scornfully  I  scan 

The  passing  show;  what  must  be  done  I  do 
And  this  at  last  may  be  the  loftiest  plan; 

Still  to  yourself  and  to  myself  am  true 
If  not  a  Poet,  then  at  least  a  man. 


45 

SONNET  LXXII 
SEAWARD 

Within  this  rugged  island  of  our  home 
Upon  a  sloping  down  we  meditate, 
And  mark  from  out  the  narrow  Georgian  Strait 

These  inward  rolling  billows  curl  and  comb; 

The  tides  are  weaving  tapestries  of  foam 
Strand  after  strand  along  the  tossing  spate, 
While  cloudless  blue,  as  if  to  compensate 

For  stormy  seas,  is  arched  the  zenith's  dome. 

Before  us  is  a  rack  of   spindrift  spume 
The   gulls'   wings,   and  the   prows   of   outbound   ships 

Like  cameos  cut,  a  distant  sky  upon; 
Behind  us  is  an  aureate  waste  of  broom 
And  now  unfurled  from  under  night's  eclipse, 
The  iridescent  oriflamme  of  dawn. 


SONNET  LXXIII 
LAURA   AND    PETRARCH 

Petrarch,  the  Poet,  madly  worshipped  Laura 

Yet  like  a  beggar  vainly  seeking  alms, 

Never  attained  the  winning  of  her  charms; 
Sang  of  her  beauty,  nursed  his  rhythmic  sorrow 
Hoped    against    hope,    and    ever    sought    to   borrow 

Balm   for   his   soul   in   sighing   sonnet-forms; 

Ah !  but  the  rounded  heaven  of  her  arms ! 
Fie  on  a  slave  who  waits   upon   tomorrow. 

Unhappy  Bard,  thus  star-like  to  enshrine  her 
However   fame  thy  laurel-wreath   assures; 

I   count  my  wooing   infinitely   finer 

The    flower    that    buds,    and    blossoms,    and    matures 

Body  and   soul   to  take  her  and  divine  her 
To  love  the  woman  and  to  make  her  yours. 


46 


SONNET  LXXIV 
SEA-LONGINGS 

I  think  a  pulse  of  this  mad  ocean  wide 

Beats  in  my  soul ;  the  same  response  and  urge 
Untamable ;  the  ponderous  lift  and  surge 

As  here  we  watch  the  headless  horsemen  ride; 

Look  how  that  breaker's  curved,  impetuous  stride 
Stamps  on  the  sands  and  sinks  within  their  verge. 
So  do  my  longings  with  oblivion  merge 

Like  buried  shells  which  coiling  sea-weeds  hide. 

Could  only  one  then  of  my  lyrics  last 

Along  with  this  far-swinging  rush  and  pour ; 

Hovering  a  space,  as  do  these  gulls  who  cast 
Their  shadows  downward  on  the  tumbling  shore ; 

Saved  from  that  futile  wreckage  of  the  Past 
The  unremembered  flotsam  of   No-more. 


SONNET  LXXV 
SPRING 

The  dog-wood  blossom  stars  an  emerald  glade 
Pale  as  Narcissus  when  he  stooped  to  see 
Bending  to  earth  a  slowly-drooping  knee 

His  boyish  reflex  mid  a  pool  inlaid; 

In  dormant  creeks  the  water-lilies  wade 
Through   silvery   vapor   vanishes   the   bee, 
While  naked   Spring,   in  leaf-clad  chastity 

Seems  Eve  in  Eden's  garden,  unafraid. 

I  find  you  in  the  flowers  and  the  grass 

In  hyacinth  whorls  and  primrose  cups  unsheathed, 

I  think  of  you  where  ivy  tendrils  cling ; 
You  are  a  Naiad  in  the  water's  glass 

Psyche  herself,  with  odorous  violets  wreathed, 
The  idyl  and  awakening  of  Spring. 


47 

SONNET  LXXVI 
SWALLOWS 

They  swerve  and  pass,  they  ever  rise  and  dip 
And  to  these  pools  in  pliant  motion  bring, 
The  tokens  of  their  pilgrim  wandering 

Upon  a  limpid  scroll  of  watery  scrip 

Which   ruffles  to  each    signing   pinion-tip, 
As  though  the  imprint  of  a  swallow's  wing 
Wrote  March-borne  tidings  of  the  ides  of  Spring, 

In  jewelled  drops  that  to  the  surface  drip. 

How  often  have  we  caught  their  sinuous  flight 
In  penciled  tracings  through  the  upper  air; 

Wheeling  and  following  to  our  watchful  sight 
O'er  salt  lagoon  and  pastured  spaces  bare, 

Till  twilight  deepened  with  approaching  night 
And  smoothed  the  waters  into  velvet  there. 


SONNET  LXXVII 
WILD    LILIES 

What  time  the  noiseless  steps  of  wayward  Spring 
Reached  and  passed  on  mid  forest-ways  unseen, 
Where  polished  leaf  and  tufted  mosses  green 

In  chequered  light  were  softly  wavering : 

There  did  we  mark  the  pensive  Goddess  fling 
Her  sacred  lilies;  thickly  sown  between 
Amid  the  roots  and  trembling  bladed  sheen 

Where  dewdrops  and  the  cobweb's  gossamer  cling. 

Wild  lilies;  sheltered  in  this  cool  retreat 
Like  neophytes  to  nun-like  peace  withdrawn ; 

And  paler  than  the  timorous  marguerite 
By  altars  fair  of  bird-wing-haunted  lawn; 

Their  heads  down-bent,  submissively  to  greet 

Through  eastward  tinge  the  Angelus  of  the  Dawn. 


48 

SONNET  LXXVIII 
EN  SILHOUETTE 

How  stealthily  uncoiling  does  it  creep 
About  us  here,  this  chiaroscuro  dim, 
How  shadowy  the  bats  around  us  skim 

While  seas  beyond  move  restless  in  their  sleep; 

Hark  to  the  winds,  their  rallying  cohorts  sweep 
Northward  to  meet  a  vague  horizon-rim, 
While  starlit  bubbles,  beading  over-brim 

Night's  chalice  poured  from  her  Cimmerian  steep. 

That  winking  light,  which  tells  of  an  abode 

These  whispers  murmured  from  the  inky  stream 

That  meteor's  rush,  how  rocket-like  it  glowed 
How  strange  our  voices  in  this  darkness  seem ; 

The  while  we  hear  in  lapping  chords  below 
The  wash  of  waves  in  soft  adagio. 


SONNET   LXXIX 
SEA  MEMORIES 

White  shells ;  green  dulse ;  and  pebble-dotted  strands 
Below  our  path  with  shapes  of  rock  and  hill. 
And  brackish  tides  which  never  can  be  still ; 

Lovers  slow  walking  with  close-folded  hands — 

One  mast  far  out,  that  tree-like  lonely  stands 
With  listless  sails  to  either  droop  or  fill 
As  the  wind  veers;  and  over  all  a  thrill 

Of  seas  unsailed  and  venturous  foreign  lands. 

A  century  from  now  will  see  the  same. 

Green  dulse,  white  shells,  a  convoluted  beach 

And  panoramas  of  or  storms  or  calms ; 
Sails  to  reflect  the  sunset's  molten  flame 
While  facing  westward,  rapt  and  lost  for  speech 
Will  other  lovers  wait  with  clinging  palms. 


49 


SONNET  LXXX 
MOTHER  AND  DAUGHTER 

This  idolizing  girl  who  to  you  turns 
And  twines  herself  about  your  Mother-love, 
Which  lioness-fierce,  yet  gentle  as  the  dove 

Within  your   bosom  heaving   throbs   and  burns — 

As  flower  with  flower,  a  vestal  maiden  yearns 
Lifting  her   face  to  meet  your   face  above; 
Herself  the  semblance  and  reminder  of 

Some  lily  rising  from  the  terrace  urns. 

So  in  good  time  mayhap  she  may  be  blest 
With  her  own  child;  as  now  you  are  by  her. 
More  goodly  than  or  frankincense  or  myrrh 

The  incense  of  her  kisses  at  your  breast ; 

So  once   you  twined  within  your    Mother's  arms 
With   all  your  own  and  all   your   daughter's   charms. 


SONNET  LXXXI 
MOTHER  AND    SON 

For  one  blurred  instant,  looking  on  you  two 
It  seemed  I  was  a  little  boy  again; 
Purged  of  the  vileness  of  the  sons  of  men 

With  eyes  as  clear  as  drops  of  morning  dew ; 

Yet  this  was  sheerest  paradox  I  knew — 
Born  of  some  inner  fantasy,  as  when 
Lost  days  drift  upward  to  the  startled  ken, 

And  for  our  love  and  pity  doubly  sue. 

Sweet,   baby  eyes;   twin   fountains   undefiled 
And  in  their  depths  my  profile  shadowed  there 
Beyond  the  dominance  of  wasting  care ; 

O  my  dead  youth!  was  ever  I  a  child? 
What  master-chemist  mixes  this  alloy 
The  child  in  man,  the  Father  in  the  boy ! 


50 


SONNET  LXXII 
SIWASH 

This  plaited  wicker  basket  which  you  raise 
In  smiling  token  bidding  me  to  look, 
Unfolds  the  past   like  opening  a  book 

Of  which  I  know  each  retrospect  and  phrase; 

It  shows  again  the  walled  Alberni  bays 
Where  we  our  pilgrimage  to  westward  took. 
By  mossy  bank,  and  fern-frequented  nook 

And  undulating  droop  of  lowland  braes. 

How  clear  my  recollection  paints  it  all! 

The  Beaufort  peaks  uprearing  one  by  one; 
The  Somass  river  eddying  to  its  fall 

With  ripple-harps  where  turbulent  rapids  run, 
Just  you  and  I ;  a  wood-bird's  languorous  call 

And  Indian  children  playing  in  the  sun. 


SONNET  LXXXIII 
JASON 

At  such  an  hour  and  loitering  by  the  shore 
When  hazy  quiet  sends  a  dreamful  peace, 
Where  winds  are  lulled,  and  tidal  ebbings  cease 

While  that  the  sea  is  sapphire  to  its  core, — 

There  have  we  talked  of  legendary  lore 

Sirens  and  mermaids;   chronicles   of   Greece, 
And  that  far  voyage  for  the  gilded  fleece 

By  Jason  hazarded  in  days  of  yore. 

Aye!  so  they  strove,  as  heroes  do  and  dare 
And  yet  what  joy  to  Jason  and  his  crew, 

Could  they  have  found  this  one  sole  treasure  rare 
For  which  men  search  the  universes  through  ; 
Some  woman  waiting  by  the  sands  like  you 

Shaming  the  sunlight  with  her  golden  hair. 


51 

SONNET  LXXXIV 
DEATH 

There  is  no  death;  so  nature  makes  reply 
While  twig  and  leaf  are  quivering  in  the  sun, 
While  buds  expand  or  glancing  waters  run 

Through  shell-paved  shallows   racing  swiftly  by; 

And  you  and  I,  our  sudden-severed  tie 
Shall  with  the  earth  be  woven  into  one, 
When  stars  arise  and  after  day  is  done 

Though  each  by  each  in  dreamless  slumber  lie. 

Since  all  must  live  as  long  as  lasts  the  earth 
Dust  unto  dust,  even  as  a  Prophet  saith ! 

Revive  with  flowers  and  join  the  sunbeam's  mirth 
However  ceases  this  our  mortal  breath. 

Why  shun  the  later  and  the  happier  birth? 

How  thankless,  then,  this  coward  fear  of  death ! 


SONNET  LXXXV 
THE   LARK 

Above  the  daisied  uplands  of  the  Spring 

Beyond  the  flowering  slopes  at  Gordon  Head, 
We  saw  a  bird  with  pinions  wide  outspread 

That  mounted  up  and  up  on  rising  wing ; 

Breathless  we  listened  to  a  sky-lark  sing 
In  rippling  aria  through  cloud-land  shed, 
Till  last  in  ecstasy  the  carol  fled 

To  leave  us  tranced,  and  wholly  wondering. 

This  was  the  herald  in  the  shape  of  bird 

Who  sprang  one  morning  from  an  English  lea, 

And  drew  his  hearer  to  the  heights  along; 
This  was  the  lark  that  Percy  Shelley  heard 
And   fired   by   rival   classic  minstrelsy, 
Made  him  immortal   in  a   Poet's  song. 


52 


SONNET  LXXXVI 
FAULTS 

Think  of  me  always  as  a  man  who  came 
Into  your  life  to  serve  you  with  a  song ; 
Strong  in  his  hate  and  in  his  loving  strong 

In  triumph  or  adversity  the  same. 

Knowing  the  hollowness  of  wealth  and  fame 
Striving  for  right,  and  challenging  the  wrong. 
With  dreams  and  fancies  still  that  upward  sprung 

As  mounting  sparks  leap  higher  than  the  flame. 

Thus  shall  you  weigh  me  as  I  would  be  weighed 
Much  as  I  lack,  yet  giving  me  my  due ; 

Judging  how  far  my  destiny  was  swayed 
Just  with  the  boon  of  being  loved  by  you ; 

Making  my  faults  the  most  of  me,  and  then 

Holding  me  different  from  the  lesser  men. 


SONNET  LXXXVII 
SOOKE  HILLS 

So  often  from  this  overhanging  quay 
Have  we  at  sundown  scanned  the  western  hills, 
Darkling  where  haze  of  deepening  purple  spills 

Lilac  and  amethyst  in  a  gloomering  sea 

Vaguely  defined  in  its  immensity ; 

While  nearer  seen  the  inner  harbor  fills 
With  log-booms  towing  to  the  dusty  mills, 

Where  saw  and  belt  hold  screaming  jubilee. 

And  peering  outward  on  this  pictured  vast 
While  duskily  the  evening  shades  withdrew, 

At  times  we  marked  a  coppery  outline  cast 
Faint  on  the  wave  and  fading  in  the  blue — 

A  tribal  relic  of  the  Island's  past 

The  Songhee,  paddling  in  his  carved  canoe. 


53 

SONNET  LXXXVIII 
THE  HOUSE  OF  GOD 

The  organ's  dolorous  minor  pierces  through 
And  garnet  sunlight  slowly  falling,  stains 
Lord  Christ,  imprinted  on  these  window-panes 

Red  as  the  blood  the  soldier's  spear-thrust  drew : 

And  in  this  spacious  temple  I  and  you 
Where  leisurely  a  formal  service  reigns, 
Sit  silent ;  while  the  sermon's  rhetoric  deigns 

Its  flattery  to  each  fashionable  pew. 

Yet  all  this  brings  no  twinge  of  penitence 
To  my  stern  soul,  which  other  ritual  craves ; 

Such  as  I've  heard  with  heart-felt  reverence 
Choralled  by  winds  mid  forest  architraves ; 

Or  low-intoned  near  some  sea-eminence 
The  suppliant  susurrus  of  the  waves. 


SONNET  LXXXIX 
ILLUSIONS 

We  -live  as  though  there  was  no  pen  to  trace 

The  payment  of  the  last  appointed  debt ; 

And  still  each  hour  death  spreads  his  fated  net 
Entangling  Age  and  Youth's  pathetic  grace ; 
We  love  as  we  had  conquered  time  and  space 

We  two  remote  on  dream-land's  parapet ; 

Twin  spirits  in  a  spirit-circle  met 
Where  phantom  forms  and  masquers  interlace. 

This  be  a  symbol  for  both  night  and  day 
Love  without  fear;  whatever  is  or  seems; 

Before  life's  fires  are  sunk  to  dull  decay 
And  the  long  lights  have  faded  from  the  streams. 

This  is  a  truth  forever  and  for  aye 
All  but  illusions  are  as  idle  dreams. 


54 


SONNET  XC 
RETICENCE 

They  say  reserve  will  often  set  a  seal 
Close  upon  lips  which  otherwise  would  speak, 
And  with  the  medium  of  language  seek 

Their  inner  minds  to  presently  reveal 

The  joy  that  thrills  them,  or  the  pain  they  feel ; 
So  men  have  curbed  through  diffidence  or  pique, 
The  impulse  flashed  from  brain  to  burning  cheek 

As  spark  that  flies  from  clashing  flint  and  steel. 

Sometimes  when  most  I  love  you  I  am  curst 
With  this  strange  hesitance  of  heart  and  soul ; 

Even  as  a  rose  before  the  bud  has  burst 
To  write  its  passion  on  the  garden  scroll, 

In  crimson  petals  of  untold  desire 

Steeped  in  a  revery  and  aglow  with  fire. 


SONNET  XCI 
THE  SUN-DIAL 

It  stands  alone  in  consecrated  ground 
As  old  as  this  old  yew-tree's  hoary  moss 
Which  waits  beside;  its  shadow  flung  across 

That  follows  slow  the  tireless  hours  around 

Has  you  and  me  together  often  founcf 

Watching  the  sun's  rays  sift  their  feathery  dross, 
Counting  the  moments  and  their  constant  loss 

While  sullen  fate  went  by  without  a  sound. 

And  now  forgotten,  but  in  bygone  days 

Here  in  their  turn  have  others  wooers  come, 

To  muse  amid  these  memory-haunted  ways 
And  prove  with  Time  his  never-ending  sum ; 

Closed  eyes,  Alas !  which  nevermore  may  gaze 
Closed  lips,  Ah !  me,  that  now  are  stricken  dumb. 


55 

SONNET  XCII 
SOMETHING  WORTH  WHILE 

To  tramp  a  tread-mill  round  o'er  street  and  pave 
Be-calendered  of  dry  commercial  days, 
As  by  this  bastion's  sea-encircling  sprays 

The  sentinel  walks  onward  by  the  wave : — 

A  sordid  score  of  petty  tasks  to  brave 
And  delve  among  the  compost  for  what  pays 
The  current  charge, — seems  in  this  tortuous  maze 

The  humdrum  occupation  of  a  slave. 

Yet  could  I  on  some  immemorial  page 

Recall  one  interval  you  did  beguile, 
Past  all  corrosion  of  or  death  or  age 

Etch  but  the  least  enchantment  of  your  smile. 

Ah !  that,  indeed,  were  something  worth  my  while 
To  break  the  bonds  of  life's  dread  vassalage. 


SONNET  XCIII 
MADONNA  MIA 

It  may  be  partly  true  that  Raphael 
Across  whose  tomb  the  centuries  have  filed, 
By  what  he  grouped  of  Mother  and  of  Child 

In  coloring  and  technique  did  excel 

All  other  artists ;  just  what  lends  the  spell 
Which  lingers  in  their  eyes  expression  mild, 
That  couples  love  with  longing  reconciled 

In  his  Madonna,  history  does  not  tell. 

I  saw  a  picture  painted  here  today 
Like  Raphael's,  but  fairer  far  to  me ; 

In  luminous  color  framed  against  the  grey 
Unutterable  sadness  of  the  sea. 
Yourself,  My  Love,  our  baby  on  your  knee 

And  in  the  wind  your  gold  hair  blown  astray. 


56 


SONNET  XCIV 
TENDERNESS 

Because  upon  the  Spartan  I  relied 

Not  seeking  solace  from  a  God  on  high, 
Some  name  me  cold  and  hardened ;  even  I 

As  one  to  whom  is  callousness  implied; 

You  know  the  adamant  nature  of  my  pride 
Which  shall  exist  beyond  the  day  I  die, 
Not  from  my  lips  has  welled  the  despairing  cry 

Although  I  have  been  ten  times  crucified. 

With   those   perchance   world-wounded   over-much 
No  outward  scars  upon  the  soul  remain ; 

Do  I  then,  lack  in  sympathy's  close  touch 
What  answer  gives  your  inmost  heart's  refrain? 

For  if  it  be  you  think  of  me  as  such 
Then  have  I  loved  and  sung  of  you  in  vain. 


SONNET  XCV 
SHELLS 

The  lisping  symphonies  of  the  shells  you  bring 
Dripping  with  brine,  to  lay  within  my  hand, 
Are  something  dreamers  only  understand 

The  tones  they  murmur  and  the  runes  they  sing ; 

Still  through  their  arches  do  beseechings  ring 
Like  those  which  ebb-tides  plash  along  the  sand, 
When  seas  are  draped  with  night's  funereal  band 

As  evening  fails,  and  cormorants  take  wing. 

Such  were  the  melodies  Ulysses  fought 
Sinking  and  rising  with  an  ocean  swell ; 

And  down  to  us  on  wings  of  legend  brought 
Caged  by  the  pearly  chambers  of  a  shell ; 

For  in  these  sea-born  spirals  it  is  thought 
The  imprisoned  spirits  of  the  Sirens  dwell. 


57 


SONNET  XCVI 
IN  ABSENCE 

The  dawn-light  knits  a  mesh  of  mottled  pearl 
Across  the  reddening  threshold  of  the  morn ; 
Slow  tides  move,  and  another  day  is  born 

Where  sunny  hosts  their  guidons  now  unfurl ; 

The  noon-beams  over  closing  blossoms  curl 
Till  homing  birds  and  gathering  shades  forewarn, 
And  I  stand  dreamingly  and  all  forlorn 

With  thoughts  that  rise  and  southward  to  you  whirl. 

Like  arrow  loosed  my  soul  to  meet  you  flies 
The  hours  indeed  seem  more  as  lagging  years ; 

Yet  while  I  wait,  heart-visioned  to  mine  eyes 
Your  very  self,  in  a  mirage  appears; 

As  though  beside  this  desert-stretching  sea 

You  rose,  and  came,  and  smiled  and  spoke  to  me. 


SONNET  XCVII 
SUMMER 

The  fir-trees  climb  this  broken  mountain-side 
The  mother-grouse  leads  forth  her  downy  brood ; 
I  cannot  feel  what  men  call  solitude 

Amid  such  sylvanry  aloft  enskyed 

In  fleecy  rings ;  for,  instinct  as  my  guide, 
My  nature  seems  companioned  and  imbued 
With  cloud  and  glen ;  though  language  is  all  crude 

To  well  translate  what  is  to  words  denied. 

The  loveliness  of  summer  walks  these  dells. 
Above,  a  sharp  peak  cuts  the  violet  sky 

As  if  it  sprang  to  clear  the  barriered  blue; 
Below,  the  Saanich  inlet  arching  swells 
And  here  with  heart-recounted  longing,  I 
Do  wait  and  question,  thinking  aye  of  you, 


58 


SONNET  XCVIII 
ROSES 

Roses  and  roses ;  roses  flaring  red 
Yellow  and  pink  or  petalled  as  the  snow, 
Beside  the  windings  of  this  parterre  grow 

On  many  a  trim  and  quaintly  terraced  bed ; 

Their  radiant  tinges  lavishly  outspread 
Through  leaves  that  waver  when  the  south-winds  blow 
In  faint  and  tender  flute-like  tremolo, 

Past  gate  and  arbor  whisperingly  sped. 

You  seem  a  rose  here  by  this  pebbly  walk 

Red  for  your  lips  a  white  rose  for  your  hand. 

I  would  give  much  an  chance  might  grant  me  this 
That  bending  like  a  blown  rose  on  the  stalk, 
You,  turning  to  this  pathway  where  I  stand 
Drop  me  one  ruddy  petal  of  a  kiss. 


SONNET  XCIX 
TO  YOU 

Something  harmonious  is  in  your  eyes 
Akin  to  swaying  waters,  where  the  moon 
Leads  the  tides  on  in  foamy  rigadoon, 

While  curtseying  waves  alternate  dip  and  rise ; 

Something  there  is  which  in  their  pathos  lies 
Sad  as  a  plaint  of  this  unmemoried  tune, 
Which  drifts  in  poignance  through  the  leaves  of  June 

O'er-canopied  by  slumbering  Summer  skies. 

Thus  brown  as  Autumn  do  they  with  me  bide 
And  touched  with  melody  as  is  the  wind 

That  sounds  its  syrinx  by  untrodden  ways; 
And  they  will  draw  me  as  the  moon  the  tide 
Howevermore  though  stricken  years  be  thinned, 
Down  all  the  length  of  these  my  nights  and  days. 


59 

SONNET  C 
BROOM 

Here  Midas  had  his  wish ;  for  near  and  far 
The  saffron  broom  in  solid  masses  lifts, 
Fold  upon  fold  in  packed  and  glittering  drifts 

Without  a  speck  its  burnished  shield  to  mar ; 

Below,  the  tide  across  a  shingly  bar 

Swept  by  the  foam  incessant  trails  and  shifts, 
Where  a  cramped  sea  crawls  upward  through  its  rifts 

Of  cliffs  deep-graven  by  their  wave-worn  scar. 

When  first  we  saw  this  greet  us  on  a  marge 
Of  noon-lit  brightness  glimmering  to  the  sea, 

It  turned  our  thoughts  to  tournaments  of  old; 
King  Richard  of  the  lion-heart  at  charge, 
Crusades  and  Knights,  the  Age  of  Chivalry 
And  jousting  on  the-field-of-the-cloth-of-gold. 


SONNET  CI 
MOUNT  ARROWSMITH 

The  mountain  road  wound  upward  like  a  snake 
A  sluggish  python  wallowing  in  dust, 
And  gnarled  arbutus  shed  its  barky  crust 

There  by  the  wayside  tawny  flake  on  flake ; 

The  river  through  a  steep-descending  brake 
Past  log  and  boulder  tarnished  deep  with  rust, 
A  sword-sharp  current  downward  headlong  thrust 

And  sheathed  in  its  cataract  in  a  void  opaque. 

And  looking  skyward  from  a  path  we  saw 
Beyond  the  fir-trees  massed  in  plumy  crowds, 

A  sight  that  filled  our  very  souls  with  awe — 
Mount  Arrowsmith,  attended  by  the  clouds ; 

Majestic  looming  and  with  rainbow  spanned 

A  Titan  figure  poised  by  God's  own  hand. 


60 


SONNET  CII 
OTHER  MEN 

I  was  not  good,  like  others  you  had  met 
I  would  I  had  been  perfect  for  your  sake ; 
My  stubbornness  not  even  death  may  break 

Though  marbled  to  f  orgetf  ulness ;  and  yet 

How  keen  were  then  my  anguish  could  regret 
For  what  I  was,  the  slightest  ripple  make 
On  this,  our  love ;  or  cause  your  heart  to  ache 

Or  your  dear  eyes  with  sorrowing  thoughts  be  wet. 

If  I  had  sinned  be  sure  I  paid  the  wage. 

If  I  repented,  so  men  do;  what  then? 
This  I  affirm  as  truth  shall  be  my  gage 

As  I  have  said  and  say  it  once  again, 
From  passionate  youth  and  on  to  fiery  age 

I  was  not  chained  to  earth  like  other  men. 


SONNET  CIII 
OTHER  WOMEN 

The  chords  of  Sappho's  fragmentary  line 
Re-echo  with  a  world-compelling  strain ; 
And  Greek  Aspasia  by  the  Attic  main 

The  star  of  Pericles  will  ever  shine; 

Enchantresses  with  outward  selves  divine 
The  form  of  Ruth  beside  the  sickled  grain, 
Rebecca's  face,  the  Templar's  suing  vain 

Lucrece's  fate  and  Tarquin's  base  design. 

I  conjure  up  their  memory,  musing  so; 

The  waywardness  or  constancy  they  knew. 
And  her  whose  sorcery  wrought  colossal  woe 

That  Trojan  temptress  whom  Kit  Marlowe  drew 
I  know  them  all  and  truer  yet  I  know 

There  is  no  woman  in  the  world  but  you. 


SONNET  CIV 
BY  THE  FIRELIGHT 

The  back-log  shrinks  and  dwindles  to  a  shred 
As  we  sit  here  before  the  fire-side  glow, 
We  two  alone ;  as  once  in  long  ago 

Together  then  the  lambent  coals  we  read ; 

How  quickly  there  the  plastic  hours  were  sped 

While  dimmed  our  half-charred  castles  sinking  low, 
Till  that  awakening  which  stirred  us  so 

The  life-pact  wedded  and  the  words  we  said. 

Prone  rest  these  ashes  whence  a  hearth-stone  ghost 
A  space  agone  had  darted  up  the  flue, 

And  flickeringly  a  thin  flare  sinks  and  dies ; 
Sometimes  I  think  that  silence  says  the  most, — 
I  tell  you  nothing  with  my  lips  that  you 
Have  not  repeated  to  me  with  your  eyes. 


SONNET  CV 
WRECK  BAY 

Black  with  the  raging  fury  of  despair 
On  barricades  of  scarred  outlying  stone 
The  waves  break  baffled ;  and  uprearing  thrown 

Hissing  and  snaky,  with  ophidian  stare, 

Medusa  heads  with  wild  and  tangled  hair 
From  wrinkled  foreheads  backward  streaming  blown, 
In  bas-relief  are  on  the  sky-line  shown 

Above  the  ramparts  serrated  and  bare. 

Yet  menaced  by  such  writhing  shapes  as  these 
And  marking  how  the  billowy  squadrons  form, 

To  Triton's  conch-shell,  shrilled  in  wind-lashed  keys 
The  battle-spirit  in  my  veins  runs  warm ; 

I  feel  myself  a  rover  of  the  seas 
A  Viking,  and  a  comrade  of  the  storm. 


62 


SONNET  CVI 
BEFORE  THE  MIRROR 

Before  the  mirror  as  you  thoughtful  sit 
To  try  effects,  arrange  a  ribbon's  bow, 
Eve's  daughters  in  your  dalliance  I  know; 

Scotch  Alary  with  her  coquetry  and  wit 

Rare  Heloise  with  long-fringed  eyes  love-lit 
And  Guinevere,  whom  Lancelot  worshipped  so ; 
On  such  a  glass,  in  letterings  of  woe 

How  many  a  man  has  had  misfortune  writ. 

Here  in  their  day  have  lovely  women  stood 
Poising  like  swallows  o'er  a  lucent  pool, 

To  train  a  curl,  to  tie  a  silken  hood 

And  practice  lures  that  men  might  play  the  fool ; 

Thus  Cleopatra  did  her  arts  employ 

So  Helen  gazed  when  Paris  came  from  Troy. 


SONNET  CVII 
SEA-MYSTERIES 

If  Neptune  rose  with  gleaming  trident  where 
These  ocean  deeps  lie  open  to  our  sight, 
As  here  we  pause  and  note  the  scurrying  flight 

Of  broad- winged  scoters  through  the  salty  air, — 

Could  he  from  lost  mythology  declare 

Who  made  yon  sea?  Who  spun  its  foam-crests  bright? 
What  power  conceived  such  transcendental  might 

And  ploughed  the  furrows  on  its  brow  of  care  ? 

Ah!    Who  shall  e'er  Creation's  veil  uplift 
Or  guess  the  problem  of  the  rolling  spheres? 

Enough  for  us  to  know  the  Almighty  reigns. 
The  mystery  of  love  is  our  great  gift 
Though  silent  are  the  cabalistic  years, 

And  the  sea's  riddle  still  unsolved  remains. 


63 

SONNET  CVIII 
HEART'S  EASE 

Not  castled  walls  with  gargoyle  niche  grotesque 
Telling  of  Knights  and  noble  Dames  of  old, 
Nor  yet  demesnes  whose  fountain-rims  unfold 

With  Roman  marbles  rising  statuesque — 

Nor  where  in  mellowing  orange  arabesque 
The  sunshine  strikes  across  ancestral  wold, 
And  stark  tradition  lends  a  glamour  cold 

Of  mediaeval  and  of  picturesque. 

Not  such  for  us;  nor  very  far  to  roam 

From   this  our   hearth-stone,    save   on   fancy's   wings ; 

Our  joy  to  feel  what  hooded  twilight  brings 
While  star  by  star  lights  up  the  heavenly  dome; 
With  children's  voices  calling  through  the  home 

And  treasured  store  of  soul-regarded  things. 


SONNET  CIX 
SOUL-PACT 

Grandsires  and  Grandams,  chilled  to  icebergs  gaze 

From  portraits  old,  then  fade  to  nothingness ; 

Fathers  and  Mothers  falter  in  the  stress 
Of  life's  deliberate  and  relentless  ways; 
Brothers  and  sisters,  each  as  pass  the  days 

Like  glow-worm  shimmers  still  are  less  and  less ; 

While  friends,  whose  lapsing  memories  we  confess 
How  nebulous  they  seern  amidst  the  maze. 

Lovers  alone  defy  the  ban  of  years 

Here  where  the  sea  mourns  we  may  so  declare, 

And  love  alone  hath  warrant  to  endure. 
This  is  the  essence  of  our  world-careers 
That  while  all  change  and  variance  we  share, 
Of  only  one  another  are  we  sure. 


64 

SONNET  CX 
SEA-HARPS 

We  two  who  love  the  sea  in  all  its  moods 
Tenses  and  colors,  tarry  here  and  wait 
While  a  red  globe  beyond  the  western  gate 

Sinks  and  is  gone ;  and  utter  silence  broods 

Above  these  ebbing  ocean  solitudes; 

And  where  Arcturus  reigns  in  glittering  state, 
Heaven's  dusky  vaults  in  splendor  radiate 

And  muffled  ripples  thrill  night's  interludes. 

But  entering  on  this  muteness  conies  the  moan 
Of  dirge-like  winds  that  rise  from  spectral  caves 
Gulf-murmurs,  sibilance  of  sand-fretted  waves 

And  threnodies  from  twisted  conch-trumps  blown; 
Borne  in  across  the  tides  to  thee  and  me 
The  century-chorded  harpings  of  the  sea. 


SONNET  CXI 
MICHAEL  ANGELO 

Old  Angelo,  the  sculptor  Buonarotti 
Michael  surnamed  and  Painter  born  and  Bard, 
Still  like  a  giant  always  stands  on  guard 

A  cavalier  invincible  and  haughty; 

And  yet  'tis  rumored  he  was  sometimes  naughty 
Among  the  ladies ;  thus  his  name  is  marred 
However  high  his  varied  skill  be  starred, 

However  pure  through  marble  statues  taught  he. 

So,  Buonarotti !  did  you  sin  ?  well,  then, 

Such  venial  fault  with  Bards  is  counted  human 
And  sculptors,  too ;  mayhap  you  found  what  men 
Have  always  learned  if  gifted  with  acumen, 
Hdw  much  the  chisel  falls  below  the  pen 
How  far  are  both  transcended  by  the  woman. 


65 


SONNET  CXII 
A  WOMAN'S  CHARM 

A  woman's  charm  is  all  beyond  dispute 
Yet  still  unread;  yet  everywhere  adored, 
However  high  scholastic  wisdom  soared 

Or  man's  experience  has  taken  root; 

Science  and  Art  are  most  discreetly  mute 
Nor  Sibyl's  tongue  an  answer  will  afford, 
More  than  dead  echoes  which  are  dimly  stored 

Fast  in  the  shell  of  some  mid-century  lute. 

And  this  enigma  I  have  found  in  you 

Thoughever  much  you  are  my  dream  and  hope ; 

Unanalyzed  as  is  the  crystal  dew 

That  gems  the  clover  of  a  May-day  slope; 

Elusive  as  quick-silver ;  ever  new 
And  fragrant  as  the  breath  of  heliotrope. 


SONNET  CXIII 
GYPSIES 

In  some  existence  as  apart  from  this 
We  two  were  gypsies ;  sleeping  by  a  hedge, 
Camping  at  night  by  underwood  or  sedge 

And  sharing  guerdon  of  unwedded  bliss ; 

But  now  such  vagrom  errancies  we  miss 
For  law  and  order  dulls  the  dagger's  edge, 
Not  as  those  lovers  who  were  used  to  pledge 

Their  Romany  vows  with  knife-thrust  or  with  kiss. 

The  wanderlust  is  still  within  our  blood 

Howevermore  those  former  days  estranged; 

The  times  the  times,  and  not  ourselves  have  changed 

Since  last  I  sat  beneath  the  hawthorn  bud, 
A  gypsy  tinker,  fiddling  for  scant  alms 
While  you  told  fortunes  with  prophetic  palms. 


66 


SONNET  CXIV 
CONTRASTS 

What  do  I  bring  you  for  this  past  decade 

How  stands  the  balance  of  the  lost  and  gained? 
My  manhood,  has  it  waxed  or  has  it  waned 

As  back  and  forth  the  ticking  pendulum  swayed? 

How  many  inroads  have  these  ten  years  made 
On  what  I  was  ?    Has  then  some  rusting  stained 
The  once   fresh   leaves   which,   when   the    March-light 
reigned, 

Upon  the  branches  of  my  Spring-time  played ! 

I  cannot  judge;  but  leave  the  task  to  you 
Since  introspection  may  not  hit  the  mark ; 
Yet  once,  My  Love,  I  had  the  vital  spark 

A  temper  and  a  will  to  dare  and  do ; 

If  Time  has  blent  his  Autumn  with  my  Springs 
How  fares  the  wall  whereon  the  dead  vine  clings  ? 


SONNET  CXV 
TIME'S  RECKONING 

Last  night  and  now  this  morning,  and  today 
And  then  tomorrow ;  thus  the  days  drift  on 
A  marshalling  of  hours  from  dusk  to  dawn ; 

The  seasons  that  with  helpless  mortals  play 

Like  cats  with  mice ;  so  runs  the  world  away ; 
As  it  has  been  through  ail  the  aeons  drawn 
As  it  will  be  when  we  are  dead  and  gone, 

To  Lethe  and  forgetfulness  a  prey. 

Time's  reckoning ;  but  not  with  you  and  me 
However  others  to  such  fiat  yield, 

For  year  by  year  like  sweetly-blowing  thyme, 
Your  grace  and  loveliness  will  blossoming  be 
In  these  my  songs,  as  verified  and  sealed 
Here  with  the  living  signet  of  a  rhyme. 


67 


SONNET  CXVI 
LIGHTS  AND  SHADOWS 

Dawnlight  that  drew  a  pastel  of  those  hours 
We  paced  the  beach  and  noted  oily  swells 
Roll  in  from  leeward;  noon-light's  fervent  spells 

Searing  the  tips  of  harlequin  marsh  flowers; 

Twilight,  that  mingled  in  with  dank  mist-showers 
To  close  the  cloisters  of  the  hermit  shells, 
While  through  a  clammy  fog  the  clarion  bells 

Rung  hollowly  from  out  their  rock-bound  towers. 

But  most  we  loved  the  moonlight's  argent  track 
Shifted  across  the  channel  like  a  lance, 

And  bringing  tales  to  stir  an  ocean's  breast ; 
The  conquering  folds  of  Nelson's  Union  Jack 
Spain's  foiled  Armada,  made  the  sport  of  chance 
And  Walter  Raleigh  sailing  to  the  west. 


SONNET  CXVII 

AUTUMN      . 

October's  tracery  intensive  showed 
This  morning  as  we  two  haphazard  strolled 
In  foliage  that  the  maple  branches  hold 

To  strew  betimes  upon  a  country  road ; 

And  leaf  on  leaf  by  wanton  zephyr  sowed 

Lay  crisply  curled  along  the  darkening  mould, 
While  Autumn  brown,  sun-tanned  and  sombre-stoled 

Through  wavering  woods  and  down  the  path- way  strode. 

Strange  that  a  fortnight  makes  the  flowers  to  wane 
Dyeing  the  leaves  with  amber  tintings  clear 

As  birds  fly  south  and  days  are  turned  a-chill ; 
Bleak  messengers,  the  boisterous  wind  and  rain 
Descending  sharp  or  whistling  keen  and  drear 
By  Cadboro  Bay  and  on  to  Cedar  Hill. 


68 


SONNET  CXVIII 
CADBORO  WOODS 

The  flicker's  chattering  in  fanfaron  shrill 
Loud  in  the  timber  in  staccato  spoke, 
And  then  he  dropped  from  out  a  knotted  oak 

Crossing  above  the  leaf-strewn  forest  sill, 

Dipping  and  rising  to  a  neighboring  hill 
An  arc  of  gold  'mid  Indian-summer  smoke ; 
Again  his  challenge  like  a  bugle  broke 

The  echoes  answered,  and  then  all  was  still. 

Do  you  remember  where,  upon  that  day 

We  found  a  trickling  streamlet's  secret  cup? 
A  cooling  rill  that  gem-like  bubbled  up 

A  liquid  opal,  shyly  hid  away! 

Do  you  recall  how  sea  and  heaven  pierced  through 
Wave  beside  sky,  the  blue  against  the  blue? 


SONNET  CXIX 
IN  WOODLAND  WAYS 

We  rambled  down  and  past  a  woodland  bight 
Where  weed  and  bramble  sparsely  interlaced 
A  gorgeous  China  pheasant  rose  in  haste 

And  set  the  air  on  fire  with  his  flight ; 

The  valley  quail  dispersing  left  and  right 
Whirred  level-winged  across  a  thistled  waste, 
While  pale  Diana,  crescent-slim  and  chaste 

Smiled  on  us  from  a  doorway  of  the  night. 

To  us,  My  Love,  that  was  a  day  of  days 
Clipped  from  the  tattered  almanac  of  Time ; 

To  wander  forth  in  sylvan-shaded  ways 
Where  orange  sprigs  of  honeysuckle  climb, 

With  Bacchant  tempters  beckoning  through  the  maze 
And  taste  the  wine  of  Autumn  at  its  prime. 


SONNET  CXX 
OUTDOORS 

However  far  our  journeying  steps  have  strayed 
In  love  of  nature  we  are  closely  bound, 
With  prescience  of  the  Druid-temples  crowned 

On  hills  austere,  by  stream  or  rustic  shade ; 

Brother  and  sister  to  each  grassy  blade 

Comrade  and  friend  to  marshes  sere  embrowned, 
And  kindred-linked  where  jarring  skies  resound 

To  the  deep  thunder's  rumbling  cannonade. 

This  is  the  season's  priceless  heritage ; 

The  potent  spell  which  true  earth-worship  wields. 
And  this  a  tryst  that  youth  will  keep  with  age 

Till  the  last  breath  to  dissolution  yields ; 
Like  Sir  John  Falstaff  on  the  Poet's  page 

Dying  a  boy  and  babbling  of  green  fields. 


SONNET  CXXI 
DALLAS  ROADS 

Against  an  angle  of  the  staunch  sea  wall 
The  tide  leaps,  hurled  by  equinoctial  gales ; 
And  from  these  heights  we  look  on  tautened  sails 

That  tensely  stretch  from  full-rigged  main-masts  tall 

The  tireless  gulls  a-wing  complaining  call 
And  on  the  shore  a  wind  monotonous  wails, 
While  one  stray  sun-glint  in  a  pennant  trails 

Its  fallow  length  where  breaking  white-caps  fall. 

How  vivid  will  the  picture  of  this  day 

In  summer  dawns  when  then  remembered,  be? 

These  serried -ranks  of  blind  September  spray 
This  rocking  storm,  the  canvas  off  to  lee, 

And  you  and  I,  uplifted  with  the  sway 

And  grim  Samsonian  wrestlings  of  the  sea. 


70 


SONNET  CXXII 
COURAGE 

Here  in  this  life  you  find  the  crucial  test 

The  irony  of  death  and  fate  defied; 

Like  those  old  Grecian  warriors  who  died 
Sword  under  shield  at  war's  resolved  behest ;. 
This  was  our  touchstone  for  the  forward  quest 

As  onward  we  were  faring  side  by  side, 

Fronting  the  years  that  passed  us,  while  we  cried 
"Welcome  the  coming,  speed  the  departing  guest." 

God  give  us  courage,  as  there  is  a  God 
To  dare  the  utmost  rigor  of  our  doom, 

And  tread  the  white-hot  plowshares  mile  on  mile. 
To  cringe  not  under  stroke  of  chastening  rod 
But  wear  as  from  the  cradle  to  the  tomb, 
The  uncorroding  armor  of  a  smile. 


SONNET  CXXIII 
COMRADESHIP 

Still,  as  the  months  drift,  we  are  nearer  grown 
To  one  another ;  closer  year  by  year, 
Firmer  united  and  more  trebly  dear 

While  days,  as  leaves,  across  our  path  are  strown ; 

Thus  in  this  way  Love's  miracle  is  known 
The  word  of  promise  holding  to  the  ear, 
So  that  our  souls  as  listening  can  hear 

The  heart's  low  murmur  in  an  undertone. 

All  that  can  bring  mementoes  of  the  past 
We  cherish  as  the  present  hours  unfold ; 
Etchings  of  sunrise  luminously  scrolled 

And  after-glow  by  storm-rack  overcast; 
Kisses  and  tears;  the  comradeship  we  share 
The  joys  divided  and  the  pangs  we  bear. 


SONNET  CXXIV 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 

If  it  be  true  in  dying  that  the  soul 
By  reason  of  the  laws  which  so  ordain, 
Seeks  for  another,  to  on  earth  remain 

As  part  and  parcel  of  a  destined  whole ; — 

Then,  as  the  needle  wheels  toward  the  pole 

How  straight  my  wraith  in  this  return  would  fain 
Clinging  to  you,  lost  vantage  to  regain 

Cleave  through  existence  till  it  reached  its  goal. 

No  dread  of  parting  ever  comes  to  me 

Nor  finding  one  to  take  your  place  instead ; 

The  love  we  pledged  is  for  eternity 
I  care  not  how  the  horoscope  is  read ; 

Not  to  be  severed  by  Infinity 

However  fare  the  living  or  the  dead. 


SONNET  CXXV 
UNREVEALED 

This  is  that  labyrinth  men  call  the  sea 
Cruel  and  willful  as  a  woman's  whim ; 
Over  its  reefs  the  buoyant  sea-fowl  skim 

In  wisps  and  skeins  that  waver  restlessly ; 
Behold  its  secret,  sourceless  pedigree 
Written  in  ages  when  the  earth  lay  dim, 
And  hark  to  its  Circean-chanted  hymn 

Which  was,  which  is,  and  evermore  will  be. 

Above  this  crag's  wave-battered  citadel 

We  lie  and  glimpse  the  wake  of  outbound  ships, 

While  basks  the  sea  in  drowsy  indolence ; 
Its  secret  hidden  in  a  sculptured  shell 
With  white  foam-fingers  ever  at  its  lips, 
More  than  a  Sphynx  in  its  dumb  reticence. 


72 

SONNET  CXXVI 
FOR  CECILE 

You  know  my  mood,  both  somber  and  elate 
Yet  sanguine-hued,  though  time  wears  on  apace ; 
Steeled  by  the  one  remembrance  of  your  face 

Through  all  our  years  to  steadfast  watch  and  wait, 

Home  was  for  me  where  you  have  been  my  mate 
In  crowded  towns  or  lonely  country-place, 
As  one  whose  dour  tenacity  of  race 

Makes  you  alone  my  idol  consecrate. 

Fade  out.  O  sun,  in  the  enkindled  west 

Beyond  these  hills,  yon  headland  and  the  sea ; 

Die  down,  O  winds,  past  this  torn  hemlock's  crest 
Which  ragged  looms,  a  lightning-blasted  tree ; 

Not  God  Himself  shall  have  the  strength  to  wrest 
Two  souls  apart,  grown  close  like  you  to  me. 


SONNET  CXXVII 
CHOPIN 

By  wooded  shores  we  hear  orchestral  strains 
Of  Chopin's  genius  echoing  'mid  the  leaves ; 
An  oboe  sighs,  the  throbbing  'cello  grieves 

With  wailing  flute  and  violin  refrains; 

Then  swift  the  theme  its  final  height  attains 
And  whelmingly  the  blinding  harmony  cleaves 
Then  sinks ;  while  last  a  quivering  minor  weaves 

Rises  and  falls,  and  past  the  surge-roll  wanes. 

Solve  me  the  maskery  of  this  wizard  Pole 
Whose  nocturne  dies  in  spangled  vaults  above ; 
What  was  the  amour  he  was  dreaming  of 

Writ  for  all  time  on  fate's  clandestine  scroll  ? 

What  woman's  voice  had  sirenized  his  soul 
How  much  is  music  and  how  much  is  love  ? 


73 


SONNET  CXXVIII 
LONG  AFTER 

Long  after,  when  this  same  far  sun  will  shake 
Flinging  its  torches  on  the  restless  sea, 
There  will  be  those  will  muse  of  you  and  me 

When  they  their  walks  by  woods  and  beaches  take, 

Because  of  what  love's  reveries  awake — 
These  lines  for  future  ages  held  in  fee, 
Upwelling  now  and  circling  liquidly 

Like  ripples  on  the  bosom  of  a  lake. 

Long  afterward ;  what  matters  then  to  us 
Unless  it  be  that  haply  some  may  say, 

"As  these  did  love  with  full  hearts  tremulous 
We  too  adore,  forever  and  for  aye." 

And  speaking  so,  shall  rightly  even  thus 
Unseal  the  memory  of  our  yesterday. 


SONNET  CXXIX 
THE  DOWNS 

Their  crisp  declivities  to  eastward  glide 

Star-sprinkled  with  a  million  glistering  flowers, 
Where  lazy  flood  of  intermingled  hours 

Seeps  with  the  seeping  of  a  turquoise  tide ; 

Far  out  the  Straits  in  conscious  might  divide 
With  peace  which  broods,  or  vengeful  storm  that  scour j 
These  hillsides  from  the  ridged  Olympic  towers 

Whose  snow-thatched  peaks  immutably  abide. 

How  prized  by  us  was  this  serenity 
Of  sane  repose  and  all-inviolate  hush. 

Shut  from  the  jangling  bedlam  of  the  towns; 
To  stand  and  face  a  prophesying  sea 

The  moon  uprisen,  or  morning's  carmine  blush 
There  bv  the  stillness  of  the  shelving  downs. 


74 


SONNET  CXXX 
BAG-PIPES 

From  skirling  bag-pipes  in  a  thicket  green 
Beyond  the  coigne  of  Beacon  Hill's  tall  mound, 
Come  Gaelic  marches,  fittingly  renowned 

By  pipers  played  in  forest  depths  unseen ; 

Against  this  withered  broom  we  careless  lean 
Its  denseness  in  the  citron  sunshine  drowned, 
While  still  the  pipes  in  droning  discord  pound 

The  tremorous  air,  the  downs  that  stretch  between. 

And  then  I  clutch  a  knife-scarred  wooden  bench — 
This  of  all  music,  is  most  glad  and  gay 

Your  fifes  and  bugles  are  mere  pots  and  pans ; 
I  see  the  flags,  the  fighting,  and  the  trench — 
By  God !    I  had  forgotten  Lucknow's  day 
The  Campbell  pipes,  the  gathering  of  the  clans. 


SONNET  CXXXI 
ROBERT  BURNS 

Beside  these  oaks  on  carven  granite  lone 
Kneels  Robert  Burns  at  Highland  Mary's  feet ; 
Beyond,  the  waves  a  solemn  requiem  beat 

A  prologue  to  this  tragedy  in  stone 

And  figured  bronze ;  whence  is  the  plow-boy  flown 
.  Who  loved  so  wildly  and  who  sang  so  sweet 
That  fate  gave  way,  and  signalled  a  retreat 

When  the  world  claimed  the  singer  as  her  own. 

Love  while  we  may ;  let  this  be  our  decree 

Lest  the  heart's  rapture  might  remain  unsaid ; 

This  hour,  this  day  was  given  me  and  thee 
Leaving  the  rabble  to  its  idols  wed; 

Here  as  we  journey  downward  to  the  sea 
That  chants  the  glory  of  the  deathless  dead. 


75 

SONNET  CXXXII 
THE  SHEARS  OF  FATE 

Still  hang  the  keen,  arrested  shears  of  fate 

Above  our  heads,  where  fortune  bids  them  stay ; 

While  plies  the  whirring  loom  of  night  and  day 
With  warp  and  woof  of  threads  dispassionate ; 
The  seasons  pass  in  their  accustomed  state 

Spring's  dryad  step  and  Winter's  hodden  grey ; 

Yet  time  at  length,  brooking  no  more  delay 
Shall  usher  us  through  death's  amorphous  gate. 

We  might  have  parted  when  the  years  were  young 
Much  joy  have  missed,  some  ills  had  waved  aside, 

Yet  aye  the  three  weird  sisters  testify, — 
So  ye  have  walked  life's  thorny  lanes  among 
By  hope  sustained,  in  perfect  love  allied 
Or  late,  or  soon,  what  matters  it  to  die? 


SONNET  CXXXIII 
FROM  A  BALCONY 

From  this  our  balcony  we  view  the  sea 

Star-gemmed  and  moon-bedappled  where  it  shines 
In  midnight's  hushes ;  honeysuckle  vines 

Waft  up  their  fragrance  here  unceasingly; 

And  close  at  hand  a  slim  arbutus  tree 

Crinkled  and  brown  unswerving  upward  twines ; 
While  drifting  past  from  harped  aeolian  pines 

Comes  a  faint  breeze  attuned  in  elfin  key. 

Not  always  may  we  know  such  occult  sense 
Of  zones  transfigured;  still  and  more  than  still, 

When  wood  and  shore  are  wrapped  in  rays  intense 
While  the  moon  sleeps  on  yonder  curtained  hill; 

Yet  shall  the  fairies  oft  this  romance  write 

In  starry  script  across  a  page  of  night. 


76 


SONNET  CXXXIV 
BURNT  OFFERINGS 

I  offer  ashes  of  the  days  and  nights 

To  lay  upon  the  altar  of  your  life; 

All  that  is  sacred  to  the  name  of  wife 
I  would  inscribe ;  as  one  who  musing  writes 
His  record  with  a  stylus  which  indites 

A  calendar  of  passing  seasons ;  rife 

With  what  was  registered  of  joy  or  strife 
Of  garnered  sorrows  or  of  brief  delights. 

Burnt-offerings  these ;  and  from  a  Pagan  heart. 
Mere  cinders  of  the  hours  and  days  and  weeks 

Brought  silently  to  render  up  their  plea; 
Here  where  the  foam-shapes  from  the  tide-rips  start 
Carving  us  statues  of  the  sandalled  Greeks, 
And  Aphrodite,  rising  from  the  sea. 


SONNET  CXXXV 
STARS 

We  see  the  same  illuminative  stars 

As  once  they  twinkled,  and  are  twinkling  yet, 
Since  time  first  counted  them  as  brilliants  set 

Orion,  Venus,  Jupiter  and  Mars; 

Shining  above  Napoleonic  wars 
And  warning  Romeo  and  Juliet, 
Or  gleaming  cold  where  crowded  waters  fret 

The  sandy  confines  of  these  tidal  bars. 

So  as  of  eld  they  gather  in  the  sky 
Whose  distant  bourne  shall  ever  be  untrod, 
And  cast  their  luster  over  ebon  sod 

From  where  they  beam,  held  rigidly  on  high; 
Lighting  the  gateway  to  the  halls  of  God 

The  mystic  flambeaux  of  eternity. 


77 


SONNET  CXXXVI 
WINTER 

I  had  an  image  of  a  land  of  snows 
Of  groined  and  fluted  architecture  white, 
Where  field  and  stream  beneath  the  chill  despite 

Of  bitter  days  in  ivory  stiffness  froze; 

And  where  within  an  icy  garden  close 
No  blossom  nodded  in  the  deadly  blight 
Of  winter's  tyranny ;  while  banished  quite 

Were  garlandry  of  lily  and  of  rose. 

But  here  December  sunlight's  broidery 

Silvers  Oak  Bay ;  and  balmy  west  winds  blow ; 

And  sparkling  up  to  us  the  lissome  sea 
Paces  a  stately  minuet  below; 

And  mid  the  garden's  burgeoning  poetry 

Are  wall -flowers  and  a  budding  jacqueminot. 


SONNET  CXXXVII 
MORTMAIN 

If  you  were  first  to  seek  the  far  beyond 
Although  I  pray  that  we  may  go  together — 
Nor  time  nor  distance  could  release  the  tether 

Which  binds  us  firmly  in  enduring  bond ; 

To  you  alone  my  heart  and  soul  respond 

Not  caring  through  the  circling  seasons  whether 
Spring  dons  her  leaves,  or  clash  of  stormy  weather 

Flings  wide. those  leaves  when  Winter  waves  his  wand. 

For  night  and  day  I  should  remember  well 
Your  every  look  and  gesture ;  to  my  eyes 
Your  face  would  be  the  first  star  in  the  skies; 

Your  voice  would  seem  the  murmur  of  this  shell. 
And  I  should  feel;  by  these  mysterious  sands 
The  spirit-clasp  and  clinging  of  your  hands. 


78 


SONNET  CXXXVIII 
FAME 

A  craving  thirst  for  fame  was  never  mine 

It  was  enough  to  dream  and  go  my  way; 

To  search  for  fire  deep-hidden  in  my  clay 
And  keep  my  youth  mid  the  slow  years  decline ; 
To  strive ;  to  suffer ;  yet  to  make  no  sign 

Salute  the  Gods  and  what  they  willed,  obey; 

And  in  the  varying  periods  and  their  sway 
To  weld  my  hopes  and  happiness  with  thine. 

And  to  that  false  lure  of  the  unwary  sought 
The  Tantalus-fruit  by  mortals  miscalled  fame, 

I  am  not  urged ;  but  leave  my  lusty  rhyme 
As  some  male  foundling  through  the  snow  is  brought, 
To  live  or  die ;  with  or  without  a  name 
Abandoned  on  the  door-step  cold  of  Time. 


SONNET  CXXXIX 
DRIFTWOOD 

This  drift-wood  in  compact  alignment  piled 
Along  the  beach,  or  wind-rowed  on  these  rocks, 
Was  winter's  harvest,  gleaned  from  scything  shocks 

Of  wave  on  wave  in  January  wild; 

Here  Boreas  from  his  northern  caves  exiled 
Sang  in  the  rigging  at  the  outer  docks, 
While  straining  ropes  and  humming  tackle-blocks 

With  creaking  whine  the  sailor's  watch  beguiled. 

But  now  the  sea  in  amethystine  mass 
Stretches  away  as  level  as  a  floor, 

Where  I  and  April,  reminiscent  stand; 
And  mindful  still,  and  stooping  as  I  pass 
I  take  a  bit  of  drift-wood  from  the  shore 

And  write  your  name  there,  on  the  unruffled  sand. 


79 


SONNET  CXL 
AT  THE  LAST 

When  that  my  ashes  have  been  laid  to  rest 
The  crumbled  embers  of  a  burned-out  fire, 
I,  who  have  written,  daring  to  aspire 

High  as  the  highest,  noblest  as  the  best : — 

All  of  earth's  yearnings  knocking  at  my  breast 
Brother  to  sorrow,  bond-man  of  the  lyrcj 
Who  that  has  loved  me  like  my  Heart's  Desire 

Or  half  the  story  of  my  vigil  guessed. 

Not  as  the  man  that  I  have  had  to  be 
Shall  I  to  her  and  other  years  belong ; 

Never  a  moment  from  the  vision  free 

How  should  they  know  me,  this  benighted  throng? 

Proud  as  was  Lucifer,  stoic  as  the  sea 
Dreamer  of  dreams  and  singer  of  the  song. 


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